The captain of the Amazon cargo jet that overran a runway at Miami International Airport, killing five people, was a former US Army Black Hawk instructor and aviation safety officer, it has emerged.
Joseph Carroll, 55, and his co-pilot, Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37, survived the crash and were released from hospital. Investigators were due to interview both men on Wednesday as they try to establish why the Boeing 767 appeared to begin a go-around before the crew attempted to stop the aircraft.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the aircraft touched down on Miami’s Runway 30 before continuing beyond the paved surface, striking a van carrying workers from Professional Ocean Service Corp. It then broke through an airport perimeter fence and hit an SUV on a nearby road.
All five people killed were in the cleaning company’s van. Five others were injured, including the two pilots, with two of the survivors reported to be in critical condition.
Former Black Hawk pilot at the controls
Carroll joined the US Army in 1997 as an air traffic controller before becoming a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot. He went on to train soldiers for overseas combat operations and spent the final nine months of his military career as an aviation safety officer at a unit based in Reno, Nevada.
After leaving the Army in 2013, the married father of two became vice-president of flight operations at a drone company, where he was responsible for compliance, safety and occupational health. He moved into commercial aviation in 2018, working for SkyWest Airlines, Kalitta Charters and later 21 Air, which operated the Amazon flight.
Carroll had 7,145 hours of flying experience, according to the NTSB. However, he was relatively new to the Boeing 767, having obtained his type rating for the wide-bodied aircraft in May.
Silva, who had 2,655 hours of flying experience, studied aeronautical engineering in Colombia before moving to Miami for further education and flight training.
The flight, identified by investigators as 21 Air Flight 7598, had arrived from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 32-year-old aircraft was originally built as a passenger jet and was converted for cargo operations in 2015.
Data suggests crew reconsidered landing
Investigators said the flight data recorder showed the nose gear and right main landing gear touching down around 30 seconds before the recording ended. The left main gear followed 19 seconds before the end of the data.
Four seconds later, the brakes were released and engine power increased to a level consistent with a go-around, the NTSB said. The throttles were then reduced to idle and the brakes reapplied 11 seconds before the recording ended.
The aircraft’s speed brakes and thrust reversers do not appear to have been deployed, according to the investigators’ preliminary account. Both systems would normally help slow a heavy aircraft after landing.
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said investigators were examining the flight data and cockpit recordings before making any judgement about the pilots’ actions. The cockpit voice recorder contained more than two hours of clear audio, while the flight data recorder held about 55 hours of information.
The recorders were recovered from the wreckage, but investigators said they would speak to the pilots before releasing details from the cockpit recording.
A former aviation official, Mike O’Donnell, said the aircraft’s landing sequence appeared unstable and suggested the decision to abort the approach may have come too late. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The jet travelled about 1,300ft beyond the end of the runway before coming to rest. Miami International Airport does not have an Engineered Materials Arresting System, a bed of crushable material designed to slow aircraft that overrun a runway. The Federal Aviation Administration says the system has been installed at more than 120 US airports and has helped save lives.
Widow brings wrongful death claim
Yaraisi Santiso Morejon, whose husband Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo was among those killed, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Miami-Dade County against Amazon, Amazon Air Cargo, 21 Air, companies linked to the aircraft and the two pilots.
The claim alleges pilot error, inadequate training and the use of an ageing aircraft contributed to the crash. The allegations have not been tested in court.
Naranjo, 53, had worked for Professional Ocean Service Corp. after moving to the United States from Cuba in 2011. Lawyers for his family said he and the other workers were nearing the end of an eight-hour shift when the plane struck their van.
The other victims were identified as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55, Julio C. Pineda, 75, Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53, and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
Amazon said it was co-operating with the investigation and expressed its sympathies to the victims’ families. The NTSB investigation remains ongoing.
