Pilot Warned of Excessive Speed Before Amazon Prime Air Cargo Plane Crash in Miami

One pilot of the Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that crashed in Miami on Sunday cautioned they were flying “too fast” just over a minute before touching down on the runway they overran, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The pilot continued to comment on the plane’s speed while automated warnings sounded in the cockpit.

However, the other ‌pilot did not give a clear verbal response, according to the cockpit voice recording detailed in an investigative update on Wednesday that did not identify the speakers as the captain or first officer.

The 32-year-old Boeing 767 operated by 21 Air overran the runway by some 396 metres (1,300 feet) and crashed into two vehicles on the ground, killing five people and injuring another five.

Before the plane touched down, “sink rate sink rate” rang out twice in the cockpit as the aircraft at one point descended 400 feet in just four seconds, based on the information ⁠released by the NTSB. That was followed by five warnings of “too low terrain”.

“The big question is, why did they continue their approach?” said Anthony Brickhouse, an aerospace ‌safety consultant. “They had several cues that their approach was not stable, but they continued instead of going around.”