The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that pilots flying the Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) “Prime Air” Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) cargo plane could have mulled over aborting the landing of the aircraft before the crash in Miami on Sunday.
Interviews Scheduled With Pilots
During a press briefing on Tuesday shared by Fox News, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said that the agency will be interviewing both pilots involved in the incident and added that the NTSB will be releasing the readout of the onboard voice recording in the cockpit.
“30 seconds before the end of the recording, the nose landing gear and the right main landing gear touched down, and the ground speed was 158 knots (around 181 mph),” while the ground speed of the aircraft was 146 knots (roughly 168 mph) when the brakes were applied.
“19 seconds before the end of the recording, the left main landing gear touched down at a ground speed of 134 knots (154 mph).” The agency then said that brakes were released 15 seconds before the end of the recording at a ground speed of 120 knots (138 mph) and “throttles increased to values consistent with go-around thrust.”
Go-around thrust refers to increased engine power used to discontinue a landing and climb away from the runway.
The NTSB also said there was no indication in the recorded data that the aircraft’s speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
Flight Experience Of the Pilots Revealed
However, the agency said that the brakes were reapplied 11 seconds before the end of the recording. “Zero seconds at the end of the recording or the last data frame, final ground speed was 65 knots (74 mph),” the NTSB said.
Homendy said the captain, who is 55 years old, was issued his type rating for the aircraft in May this year. The captain’s total flight time is 7,145 hours of flight time. The other pilot, who is the 37-year-old first officer, received certification for the Boeing 767 aircraft in April last year and had 2,655 flying hours, she said.
The incident resulted in the deaths of five individuals when the aircraft overshot the runway and collided with two vehicles, including a van that had seven occupants and an SUV. Boeing had recently paid a $3.1 million fine to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for multiple safety-related issues.
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