‘Too fast,’ ‘too low’ warnings called out ahead of MIA plane crash, NTSB says

The National Transportation Safety Board released transcripts of recordings Wednesday from the Amazon cargo plane that skidded off the runway at Miami International Airport, revealing repeated warnings that the plane was flying too close to the ground and too quickly just before the crash.

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Joseph Carroll, 55, and Jaime Filipe Silva Molina, 37, were the pilots of the Amazon cargo plane from 21 Air, which overran the end of Runway 30 during landing on Sunday afternoon. The jet crashed into a passenger van, killing five people and injuring five others.

As part of the investigation, NTSB recovered the cockpit voice and flight data recorders from the crash site and transported them to a laboratory in Washington, D.C. for analysis. The agency released a summary of some of the events captured during “the final few minutes of the recording,” with time stamps running down until the recordings cut off:

04:18: ​The flight crew checked in with the Miami airport tower and were cleared to land.

​01:42: One of the pilots cautioned “they were too fast,” the release said. “The other pilot made additional comments regarding the aircraft’s excessive speed throughout the remainder of the recording. There was not a consistent verbal response to the comments about speed.​”

​01:23: It sounds as though autopilot was disconnected.

01:04: There was an electronic “sink rate sink rate” callout, according to the release, which indicates the airplane is descending to the ground too quickly. It was called out again a few seconds later.

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​00:48: Pilots heard a “too low terrain” callout, which was annunciated four times, the release said. It was repeated around 10 seconds later.

​00:31: There was audio that “sounds similar to the aircraft touching down,” the release said. ​The brakes were applied at a ground speed of 146 knots, or around 168 mph, a few seconds later.

​00:15: One of the pilots “called for a go-around,” which means to discontinue the landing approach and return the aircraft to an altitude and configuration to safely make another approach. The plane’s brakes were released and throttles were increased consistent with go-around thrust.

​00:10: In the final seconds of the recording, there were “sounds similar to the aircraft departing the paved surface,” according to the report. The final recorded ground speed was 65 knots, or nearly 75 mph. There was no indication that speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed.

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