The Boeing 767 hit a van on Miami International Airport property on Sunday before ramming through a fence and hitting an SUV on a public street. Five people who were a part of a cleaning crew in the van died while two survived.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy called the scene at the airport “utter devastation.”
The NTSB said the plane barreled roughly 1,300 feet past the end of the runway.
It was landing after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico as storms brewed around the Miami airport.
Homendy called the scene “utter devastation,” with pieces of the vehicles, air bags, destroyed navigational equipment and fencing along the plane’s route. Investigators didn't have full access to the site until all the jet fuel was recovered from the plane Monday evening.
Former FAA official Mike O’Donnell said that the fact that the plane landed on its nose and right landing gear first demonstrates this was an unstable landing. He said the pilot might have been attempting a “go-around” to retry the landing approach.
Video of the landing showed the plane hovering above the runway for a long time without flaring the nose to force the wheels onto the ground. Experts said it appeared a strong tail wind propelled the plane far past the point where it was supposed to land. Air traffic controllers also had not changed the approach to the runway to allow the plane to land into a headwind. Investigators will want to know how quickly the winds shifted.
