Return to Transcripts main page
CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
NTSB: Plane Hit Airport Cleaning Company Van With 7 People In It; NTSB Update On Deadly Plane Crash At Miami Airport. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired September 07, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
STEW LEONARD, CO-FOUNDER, STEW LEONARD III WATER SAFETY FOUNDATION: The Olympians recommend that. So, you know, all you want to do is get the book, get a plush toy for fun reinforce the message all the time, and then get your kids into swim lessons so that they learn to float.
And you can start it like, we have parents coming in at six months. They get in the water and just get them used to acclimation in the water.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: So important.
S. LEONARD: And they're one, one and a half years old, they can learn to float.
KIM LEONARD, CO-FOUNDER, STEW LEONARD III WATER SAFETY FOUNDATION: And another thing, when you are going to be with a group of people, it's so easy. That's what happened in our case. We let our guard down. We never said, Hey, you're watching them to each other. And there were a bunch of adults around and we let our guard down.
I remember afterwards hearing when everyone's watching, no one's watching. So again, how important the water watcher is and putting that water watcher cannot be on their cell phone.
SANCHEZ: Kim and Stew, thank you so much for sharing your story. We always appreciate when you come on and spread this message. We know how much it means to you. So thank you so much for the time.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yeah, thank you, guys.
S. LEONARD: Hey, you want me to send you the plush toy so you could bring it to bed with you at night, Boris?
SANCHEZ: We'd love that. I would love that. I absolutely would love it. Thank you both so much.
THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Happy Labor Day to you. Welcome to THE ARENA. Kasie Hunt is off today. I'm Sara Sidner. Right now, we are just moments away from a major update on the deadly
Amazon plane crash. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, as it's called, are on the scene in Miami holding their first news briefing any minute now.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
SIDNER: Just awful video, dramatic video from this deadly disaster showing the Boeing 767 careening off the runway across a four lane road and then striking several vehicles before coming to a stop near a parking lot and bursting into flames. You see there at least five people have been killed in this. Five other people were injured.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, the plane's on fire. Plane's on fire. Put your game faces on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This aircraft overrun the runway. It crossed 67th Avenue. It struck a truck. We do have a patient on the ground. We're looking at serving the area for more patients.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
SIDNER: All right. I want to bring in CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean. He has been there first on the scene. Now you are waiting for the NTSB live at Miami International Airport.
We're also joined by CNN safety analyst, former FAA safety inspector David Soucie, who we will get to in just a bit.
Pete, I want to start with you.
You have been on this scene. You have seen what happened in the aftermath of this. What are you expecting to hear from the NTSB today?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the NTSB, along with about a dozen investigators, surveyed the scene in their first walk around of this Boeing 767 as it sat with its tail in the air after careening off the end of the runway 30 here at Miami International Airport around 2:00 p.m. yesterday. Investigators got their (AUDIO GAP). And we are about to hear from the investigator in charge of this investigation, also from NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy.
They what they call planting the flag. This is the initial briefing that NTSB investigators give after they launch on what's called a go team from the NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. We will hear critically whether or not they've been able to recover the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. Those will give official clues to investigators because we know that there is a bevy of evidence out there already in the public sphere about how this plane essentially came in too high.
The graphic from FlightRadar24 shows what pilots call an unstable approach as this Boeing 767 came in to land here. You can see the other approach paths there. That's a normal standard descent to the runway here. And then the red path is the plane ballooning up and then diving back toward the runway.
That is something that's so critical. tells this story of a runway -- a landing, rather, an attempted landing that went horribly awry. And you can see in the video taken from the south runway on the tarmac, the airline with the left landing gear trolley still in the air as the plane passes the two-thirds point down the runway. The speeds also really tell a story here from ADS-B Exchange and FlightRadar24, about 200 miles an hour.
Typically at the point, a plane would be going about half that speed. and then went off the end of the runway going 130 miles per hour through the airport fence, about 1,700 feet of grass, and then also four lanes of road, ultimately coming to rest in the parking lot. not far from an Amazon warehouse and large logistics facility.
So, we will get our first look here as investigators are getting their first look at the evidence here, the physical perishable evidence before they ultimately clear the scene. Of course, the big thing, what is in the black boxes? We will see. Hopefully, they were able to recover that data. There have been incidents lately where the data is erased. Either time went on and the reel ran out on the tape, essentially on the voice recorder.
It'll be so critical to know whether or not the pilots were able to realize that this landing was not going as they planned very clearly.
SIDNER: Yeah, and you're standing by there as are -- we all waiting for the officials from the NTSB to come forward for the first time and sort of give us their preliminary view of what happened here.
David, I do want to go to you as we wait for that. Typically, you've told us before, it takes up to a couple of years often until this probable cause is determined in a final report. But you've taken a look at this video. What do you see and what do you think are some of the potential problems here with that landing? You see it's sort of not completely connecting with both wheels on the ground when it lands as is normal.
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, the investigators will have their hands full certainly on this one because you have that unstable approach, but that doesn't mean that it's not a recoverable situation, but they had a lot of things working against them. If you look at the flight of the data from the LWAS, the low level wind shear advisory system. So LWAS is telling them that there's actually a change, a dramatic change in the wind.
The wind was, I had gusts at 190, 180 degrees, which is almost back just a tailwind for the airplane. So as they come into land and they're trying to slow it down even more because they have this high approach, a lot of energy to dissipate, but they had this working against them as well. The wind had shifted and was actually pushing them down the runway as well.
So until those landing gear are firm, as Pete mentioned, until that landing gear is on the ground, which it was not two-thirds of the way down the runway. The speed brakes aren't going to work as desired. The brakes themselves are not going to work. And the thrust reversers, all three of the things they have to slow the aircraft down are just not functional until you become a ground aircraft. You're on the ground and you're trying to stop the airplane.
So, they had a lot of things working against them. And as I said, the investigators will have a lot of data to sift through to see what the actual cause of this was.
SIDNER: Yeah. It's really sort of terrifying watching this happen. Nobody can stop it. And you see it just slamming into those cars and catching on fire.
I want to bring in Peter Goelz, who is CNN aviation analyst and former NTSB managing director as well, who was with us.
There was a moment and you heard Pete Muntean kind of allude to this. From what we can tell, there was no mayday call, no emergency landing being called in from the cockpit of this plane to the tower. What does that tell you?
PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think that tells us that the pilots had their hands full. Their first responsibility is to fly the plane and fly it safely, not to chat or communicate. That's number two or three.
But I think, as we've seen in the tape of the approach, the aircraft started to flare and then something happened. It either hit a gust of wind or a severe downdraft, as David pointed out. And that plane was absolutely not in line to land. They probably should have gone around. You see, it just started to flare, David. And then it ended up in a very awkward landing position, with its main landing gear not contacting the runway.
So, I think -- I think we're going to have a lot of evidence. The NTSB is going to get on it. And I don't think this is going to be a particularly difficult accident to investigate, but it's going to be complex.
For instance, did the tower warn the pilots that there was a weather shift? Were there enough people in the tower? We've had some issues recently in which towers have been understaffed. Was the tower fully staffed?
We don't know yet. But the NTSB will get it.
SIDNER: Yeah. And if you look at the video, you can also see where the weather is as it's coming in. You can see dark, dark clouds, what looks like there may be rain in the back there that could have helped cause some of this at the time.
I want to get to Pete, who is standing by where the NTSB is expected to have comments in just a bit here. I mean, it could happen any second.
Pete, give us some sense of the safety measures that are there at Miami International Airport, because some airports, as David and Peter both said in the past, have something to help stop something like this from happening, at least keeping the plane from, for example, going over those lanes of traffic, helping to slow it down. Does that exist at Miami International?
MUNTEAN: Simply no. This airport has what's called a runway safety area, essentially a large opening of grass at the end of the runway, essentially cleared out if a plane does careen off the end of the runway, when airports aren't able to have that. because of development or a tight-in perimeter or a close fence or maybe some housing or what have you.
[16:10:00]
The FAA has encouraged airports to install what's called EMAS, for Engineered Materials Arresting System. It's essentially a bed of crushable concrete that the wheels of an airplane roll into. And as the airplane sinks into it, the property called resistive drag essentially pulls the airplane to a very quick stop.
It's designed to prevent an incident specifically like this. Doesn't seem that because of the layout of the airport, it would have been required here. But one has to point out that there has been more and more development on that west side road with that Amazon warehouse and the logistics center, which may make the argument for something like this. We have seen an unprecedented number of EMAS saves in the last year, four of three private jets, one commercial jet specifically at Roanoke, where everybody walked away because of these systems that are in place.
It's at 70 or 71 airports across the country. The FAA is encouraging more and more airports to get it, and the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended in bold lettering for airports to get this system in greater numbers. The problem is, of course, it's very expensive, like anything.
And so sometimes this comes down to dollars and cents when there's lives on the line and the rules in aviation are written in blood.
SIDNER: Certainly, it's not required. It is something that they can do voluntarily. And as you said, costs a lot of money. We'll see what happens in the future.
David, I want to just quickly go back to you because of something that Peter and Pete talked about, which is could they have or would have been too dangerous for the pilots to be able to sort of go back up as they're coming down when they realize just how fast they're going, how close they are and feeling that potential wind shear, how dangerous would it have been for them to try to kind of tip back up, go back into the air, and go around.
SOUCIE: Yeah, in this case, you would think that that's what they would have done. What we don't know is, were they having some agent trouble? Were there some other things to prevent them from doing that?
Of course, that's the pilot's decision at that point. But typically, you're watching the runway go by you. You know exactly how many feet you are on that runway, the percentage of runway that's left. So, at some point, you have to make that calculation.
Now, this particular aircraft has plenty of power to pull back up out of that, even at that two-thirds mark at the runway. It has plenty of power to pull itself through and do a go-around. But why the decision was made to not do that is still in question.
SIDNER: Peter, will we be able to get that information, you think, from the black boxes here, even though we are seeing that there was quite a large fire at one point and quite a bit of damage, at least to the front of the aircraft as it kind of careened into those cars on the road in the parking lot?
GOELZ: I think the data recorder and the voice recorder are heavily protected and heavily armored. This kind of accident will not in any way threaten their integrity. And the only question is whether they were both operating. Occasionally, the maintenance is not up to par on cargo operations, and the recorders are not functioning. But I think in this case, the NTSB will have plenty of information to check.
SIDNER: I want to go back to Pete Muntean just quickly, because I wanted to find out from you at this point, since this happened on Sunday, as to whether or not we know who the people are who have lost their lives and who the people are who have been injured in this.
We've got five people who have been killed here, Pete, and five others that we know have been injured. Do we have any information on the extent of the injuries and any identification yet? Or are we expecting to hear that from the NTSB?
MUNTEAN: We typically do not hear from the NTSB any update on the condition of those injured, any names or identities of the dead. That is something that the NTSB does not do simply because it is focused solely on the investigation and making transportation safer.
We do know that of the five that were injured, two were taken to a level one trauma center with critical injuries. Others were taken to a nearby emergency department with less serious injuries. I want to as a pilot here, the very early -- you learn how to -- practice aborting a landing --
(AUDIO GAP)
SIDNER: Pete, I'm going to have you start again because you're breaking up a little bit but you said you want to talk about the pilot here and the thought of aborting the landing go ahead.
MUNTEAN: Yeah, as a flight (AUDIO GAP)
SIDNER: We're going to work on the technicalities here because we are still getting hits in your audio. And I will go now to David to ask a similar question about what the pilot is doing, what they're thinking as they're trying to maneuver all of this.
Clearly, as Peter said, it didn't appear that they had time to call in and say, hey, we're having trouble here.
[16:15:02]
What's the pilot doing and thinking at this point in time as they're trying to land this plane safely?
SOUCIE: Well, they are trying to fly and land the airplane. And remember, there's two pilots. So, the pilot flying is the one that's trying to make sure that the airplane gets on the ground. Now when you have surprises like this, where you come into the land and all you have is not enough stopping power. You're not able to get the aircraft down because of this tailwind situation where you're being pushed forward or because you had too high a speed, whatever the reasoning might be.
If you focus too much on flying and getting it on the ground, you may not be thinking of the alternatives. The other pilot should be announcing alternatives to the pilot and saying, look, we're already at one quarter of the runway, we're already at half the runway, let's consider a go around. That's the kind of communication that would be going on in the cockpit.
So that's what they're doing. But if you become ultra focused on trying to get the airplane down, that speed at which you're going past that runway is so fast that you may not have time to make those decisions and the human mind has to process, has to go through all the steps. And at that point, it may have been too late for the go around and they made the decision to just keep it on the ground.
SIDNER: Yeah, it's terrifying watching this. I cannot imagine what it was like inside the cockpit of that plane. We're just being given a couple of minutes warning for the NTSB to start its press conference, and it's the first time we're going to be hearing from them after this crash has happened.
Peter, to you now, how common is this for these kinds of incursions compared to other crashes that we've seen?
GOELZ: Well, any, you know, aviation accident is rare, but this sort of accident occurs and it occurs on a regular basis. And as has been pointed out, particularly in those airports where there are EMAS in place, fatalities are avoided.
I mean, the planes are damaged, but the passengers and the crew walk away. I mean, that's -- any kind of accident is unusual. Aviation is still far and away the safest form of transportation. But yeah, these -- there is a seems to be an increased focus on it and people are nervous about flying. It's not the pleasant experience it used to be. So, we've got to report and take a hard look at it.
SIDNER: All right, we just got a minute left before we're going to hear from officials from the NTSB.
David, I want to just go back to you. And when you're dealing with a plane like this, is there any difference between how a pilot would deal with, say, a cargo plane versus a passenger jet?
SOUCIE: Well, it could be because of the weight and balance and how much is on board the aircraft. So that can affect the decision. In a cargo plane, the loadings might be higher because they're trying to pack as much in there as they can. I'm sure it was still within legal limits.
However, the airplane flies much differently when it's at the high end of the loading capacity of the airplane. So that have factored -- absolutely could have factored into the decision to make the go-around or not based on how much weight was on the aircraft and how much power it would have taken to go ahead. What he would not want to do is add that power and try to make a go around without enough power and end up in a residential area or someplace where it's not safe to land and we could have seen much -- many more fatalities had that decision been made to do it and failed.
SIDNER: One of the things that the NTSB will certainly have, something that they have now that they didn't have 30 years ago was a lot of video, where you get people taking video with their cell phones from different angles. You'll see different things. How much does that play into this in today's age as they're looking through these things? Because obviously they're going to look for the black boxes.
They're going to try, if the pilots are well enough to speak or survive this, they're going to be speaking with the pilots. But there's also plenty of video out there. Hold on, we're going to go ahead now to the NTSB press conference, the first time they've spoken since this deadly accident at Miami International.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are joined by NTSB investigator in charge Chihoon Shin, and that's C-H-I-H-O-O-N S-H-I-N. And then Chairwoman Homendy will take some questions.
JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIRWOMAN: Thank you for joining us.
My name is Jennifer Hammondee, and I'm chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board. With me tonight is our investigator in charge, or IIC as we refer to them, Mr. Chihoon Shin.
If you are not familiar with the National Transportation Safety Board or NTSB, we are an independent federal agency that's charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States. and significant events, accidents and incidents, in all other modes of transportation.
[16:20:14]
We're here with a pretty large team, and I'll talk about the team and our process in a second, but we're here at Miami International Airport to investigate an accident that occurred yesterday 1:53 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time involving Amazon Air Flight 7598, a Boeing 767-33 Alpha, which was operated by 21 Air LLC based in Miami.
I want to pause for a moment before I continue on and talk about the investigation. and extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy and to the families of those who suffered serious or minor injuries. We can only imagine all that you're going through. Please know that our hearts go out to all of you and know that we are deeply, deeply committed to our duty, our responsibilities, as an investigative agency to determine how this accident occurred, why it happened with one goal in mind, safety. And that's to prevent it from happening again.
We do that by issuing safety recommendations in our final report at the end of the investigation, along with probable cause and findings, those safety recommendations are aimed at preventing the next tragedy. And then we work diligently to make sure those recommendations are implemented and lives are saved.
Speaking of saving lives, I want to thank work of all the first responders on scene and those who continue to be on scene, specifically Miami Airport, Miami-Dade Sheriff's Department, Miami- Dade Fire Rescue, and the local FBI. Now the local FBI, who many of you may have seen, is a force multiplier for the NTSB. We have a memorandum of agreement with them. They have been extremely supportive over the years in helping us collect evidence in investigations.
So, they are here. I also want to thank the numerous federal, state and local officials, including the mayor, Mayor Cava, who offered support, significant support for the NTSB. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner, and to others, Deputy Mayor, for offering your support. Certainly, we could never do what we do at the NTSB without your help. And so, thank you for that.
What we know so far is the flight was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, with two crew members on board. This was the third flight for that aircraft yesterday. Went from Cincinnati to Miami, Miami to San Juan, and San Juan back to Miami.
Overran runway 30 on landing, struck navigational aids and equipment. then impacted a 2012 White Ford Econoline van that was owned by Professional Ocean Service Corporation, which is a contract cleaning company for the airlines. In the van were seven persons on board.
The aircraft then traveled through a perimeter fence and impacted a Toyota Corolla Cross LE which was traveling on Northwest 67th Avenue and then continued into the grass and impacted another fence line which separated and impacted another fence line which separated an area where Tesla robotaxis were stationed.
[16:25:04]
In total, it was about 1,300 feet past the paved surface.
Now I want to set expectations for providing investigative information tonight. I'm really only going to talk about our process, what we did today, what we're going to do tomorrow. And there's a reason for that. We have a very large team. We have a team of 32 people here. That includes us.
We began arriving on scene at 6:00 p.m. last night. That continued through the night with many of our personnel going to Fort Lauderdale and driving here. And then we had personnel arriving throughout the day, really through the last half hour. So, our team was all en route today. I arrived this morning and went straight to the scene. We do -- we have begun collecting investigative information. We do
have data and information, but we are a very thorough, fact-based agency, and we don't release that information until we have verified it, and are able to provide that verified information to the public, which we hope to do with much of the information tomorrow.
Now, as I said, we did go to the -- we went to the accident command post today and were on scene. Certainly, I walked the path from the runway past the vehicles and to where the aircraft came to rest. Had to be somewhat cautious today because first and foremost is our concern for the safety of our personnel. We are a safety agency.
There's fuel everywhere. That will have to be remediated, but then they are also removing fuel from the aircraft. So, we have to allow that to occur. And as we speak, recovery operations continue.
The recovery of victims is most important. The investigation and access to the aircraft as well as evidence can wait while that the recovery operations go forward. That is most important -- reuniting families with their loved ones is most important. And so, we want to respect that process and do what we can to begin our investigative duties, but allow what's most important to go forward.
Tomorrow, let me talk a little bit about tomorrow. Wait, before I go to tomorrow, we were able to recover the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder that is going back to the NTSB tonight in just a couple of hours and will be at headquarters where it can be evaluated and downloaded.
Tomorrow, you know, so the entire team of 32 personnel or investigators break up into specific areas to look at areas of an investigation and collect information. We'll have a group of investigators focused on operations and human performance. They will look at the history of the accident flight, look at the flight crew experience, training, 21 Air LLC policies and procedures, their relationship, the contractual relationship with Amazon.
We'll also look at FAA oversight of all involved operators. We'll look at air traffic control. A team will look at that. Air traffic services, radar data, and we'll look at controller pilot transmissions.
We'll look at aircraft performance. We have a specialist here focused on that. We have a team focused on structures. So, they'll go in and begin documenting the scene and look at the aircraft wreckage -- airframe wreckage, sorry.
We have a team looking at airplane systems. They'll examine the components of the airplane's hydraulic, electrical, navigational, pneumatic, and associated systems that includes instruments and the flight controls.
We have a team focused on power plants. That's the engines. And then we have a meteorologist, a specialist here that will begin looking at forecast and weather conditions on landing.
[16:30:11]
And we have a team that will look at airport survival factors and emergency response. They will look at notices to -- any notices to airmen that were issued runway design, they'll look at fire and rescue, and they will look at the lack thereof of an engineered materials arresting system, or EMAS. And I'm sure that you all have been looking at that.
For those watching that are not familiar, what this is crushable lightweight material that's at the end of a runway that safely stops an aircraft. So, we will look at that. It's not at every airport across the nation. A data we still have to confirm and look at that is about 72 airports across the U.S.
And then we have a team, our transportation disaster assistance team. They work with families. And we have a very broad definition of families, so those that were -- who were tragically killed and then also those who were seriously injured or minor injuries. We'll be here for at least a week.
We will not be determining probable cause while we are on scene. We are here to document the scene and to collect the perishable evidence. One thing the public could really help us with is if you think you have photos or videos or information that is relevant to this investigation, we would ask that you send those in to witnes@ntsb.gov. That's witness@ntsb.gov.
Please only send information that is relevant to this investigation. I have been part of investigations where people have sent fake photos. That really does impact our ability as -- to get through that information because our team has to track down each of those photos and that information coming in.
But the public has been very helpful in the past by providing photos and videos that were really helpful in our investigation and giving us great information.
With that, I -- do you have anything you want to add? With that, I will ask if you have questions, please raise your hand. Please state your name and your affiliation. I will call on you.
Please limit it to one question. If we have to do multiple rounds, we will. We'll go right here.
The question is the status, the health status of the flight crew, the pilot and copilot. The NTSB does not comment on the health status of individuals. That we leave to the authorities, so we would encourage you to contact the authorities for that information.
REPORTER: Do we yet know their experiences?
HOMENDY: Come back to that.
Go ahead.
REPORTER: Alex Tabet with MS NOW. It was at NTSB's recommendation in 1984 that led to the development of
EMAS technology in the first place. but it's only required when the runway area is under 1,000 feet. For both of you, I guess my question is, do you believe an EMAS would have made a difference yesterday, and should they be installed everywhere?
Those are excellent questions. The questions are on EMAS and whether that would have helped prevent this tragedy and should EMAS be everywhere at every airport. That will be a key part of our investigation. Thank you for asking.
Pete?
MUNTEAIN: It sounds like a pretty long trail of destruction.
HOMENDY: Yeah, I would describe it in one word of devastating, utter devastation. I mean, you can see on the paved surface tire marks that continues through the grass. There's debris everywhere. The Econoline van is -- torn apart.
[16:35:01]
It is, you know, certainly must have been devastating. And then the vehicle itself, the SUV, you can see airbags, the surrounding airbags. You can see components from vehicles, both passenger vehicles and the aircraft itself, and certainly components of the navigational aids. Yeah, some of debris from the airport and then certainly fencing everywhere.
It's pretty extensive. Hard to see and I'm sure it must have been very difficult for the responders as well.
Yes? And then we'll go over here.
REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) "The New York Times". Any sense of the speed of the aircraft that I was descending and why they chose not to go around again?
HOMENDY: Yeah. So the question is on the speed of the aircraft on landing and why they wouldn't have gone around again. A couple of things. We do want to interview the we'll have to interview the crew. We'll have to interview others. We're going to want to talk to crew members of flights that may have landed prior to this flight.
And then -- what was your first question?
REPORTER: Why -- their speed.
HOMENDY: Oh, their speed. We do have information on speed. We do have data, but it's from various sources, and we want to confirm that data with a flight data recorder, so we're going to hold on that for now. But I hope that we can provide that tomorrow.
Yes.
REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) NBC. Have you been able to speak with a pilot or copilot or any of the survivors of the crash?
HOMENDY: Have we been able to speak with the pilot, copilot, or survivors of the crash at this time? Our transportation disaster assistance team is out and about. I have not connected with them to see who they've communicated with. We have not conducted interviews yet, but those are being scheduled. here and then here.
REPORTER: Jeff Derderian, WPLG.
Any sense or can you give us any history of the pilot and the copilot? How long have they been in the air for? How many hours have they been flying? Can you tell us anything about their background?
HOMENDY: Question is on pilot experience. Again, we have some information, but we need to be very accurate on the information that we can provide, and we hope to have that tomorrow. We'll get back to you tomorrow on that.
Yes.
REPORTER: Any indication that they weren't getting all the information, like weather information or runway information or anything like that, that maybe they weren't seeing or weren't able to see?
HOMENDY: Any indication that the pilots weren't able to receive or didn't receive or weren't able to receive some information like weather information or? That will be something that we look at. We look at that as part of any investigation, but we don't have evidence to that yet.
REPORTER: I feel like we're covering runway excursions with credible regularity for EMAS saved in the last year. There was a runway excursion, I think, like Chattanooga just last month.
What goes through it? Are these happening too often? I mean, what goes through it when you see this incident and consider it zoomed out in the grand scheme of all these other incidents?
HOMENDY: Well, zoomed out, I mean, first, let me say that we have an incredibly safe aviation system here in the United States. With that said, when a tragedy occurs, it's devastating. So, saying we have an incredibly safe aviation system to somebody who just lost a loved one is not something that they want to hear because they are suffering.
With that said, that's why we're here, to prevent the next tragedy. I will say this, though. We have investigated many runway excursions, and I looked at the numbers, I think it was over 3,000 investigations since 2008. And we can only work to prevent the next one if our recommendations at the end of an investigation are implemented.
If we are in the business of repeatedly investigating an accident or tragedy and our recommendations are not implemented, then we're here again and again and again. Our whole goal as a safety agency is one thing. It's safety. It's to save lives.
[16:40:01]
And that means our recommendations must be implemented or we're going to be here again. I won't say that.
The question is, are they happening too often? One is too often for the NTSB. Just one. So, you know, here we have people who died and other ones we have not had fatalities, but just one is a tragedy.
We'll go here, go here.
REPORTER: Sounds like two of the runways are so closed here at MIA. When will the plane likely be removed and will that process look like?
HOMENDY: The question is when will the two runways are operational, two are closed. What will the process look like for getting those operational again and removing the aircraft?
First of all, we need to document the scene, and we need to get access to aircraft itself. We do not have that yet. Again, recovery operations are continuing. It is not a completely safe scene for our team as well.
We have to ensure that before we even begin our investigative work on the aircraft side. Certainly, we are already documenting tire marks, other investigative marks along the path of the flight. But it's going to take time, we hope. that we can move through it swiftly because we know it is impacting flight operations here, but we have to make sure that we're able to get access to the aircraft first, here and then here.
REPORTER: Any concern about the age of the ownership history with the plane? Is that something you guys are going to look into?
HOMENDY: Any concern about the age or ownership of the plane? That is something we always look into. I believe it was manufactured in 1994. We always look at that as part of any investigation. Yes.
REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) is now investigating 3,000 airport runway excurions. Any clue or idea what recommendations all could be presented, or I guess (INAUDIBLE) in the past?
HOMENDY: Yeah, so I have looked at our, the question is what, are there any recommendations in the past that might be applicable here, or have we looked at potential recommendations now? It's too early.
Right now, we're in the fact-finding phase of the investigation, then we move into analysis once we have all the facts complete.
Certainly, we've looked at, we have a list of what those past recommendations are and the status of those recommendations, but it's too early to say whether they were a factor here.
Last question. Yes.
REPORTER: Were all the victims in the van? Was the victim, was there a victim in the Toyota Corolla as well, or were they all just -- HOMENDY: The question is, were the victims limited to those two
vehicles? Yes. It was the Econoline van transporting the workers with the cleaning company and the passenger vehicle, the Toyota Corolla Cross.
REPORTER: The van was on the inside of the airport.
HOMENDY: The van was on the inside of the airport. The small SUV was on the outside.
REPORTER: And you said that part of the investigation would be looking into the relationship between 21 Air LLC and Amazon. What are you looking for exactly in that relationship?
HOMENDY: What does that mean as part of the investigation? What does it mean as part of the investigation when we're looking at the relationship or contractual relationship between Amazon and 21 Air.
So this is an Amazon operation -- operation for transporting cargo, but it's actually contracted to 21 Air. So, we're going to want to see what that relationship is, who does what, what safety provisions might be in any sort of contracts or any sort of policies, and then we'll see from there we might even have additional information that we seek.
Thank you very much. And just please keep an eye on our X feed for the next press briefing, which will be tomorrow. Thank you very much.
SIDNER: Okay. So you have been listening to the NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy giving update on that deadly plane crash at Miami International Airport when a cargo plane overshot the runway that happened on Sunday.
[16:45:12]
We now got some new details about it. The Boeing 767 had two crew members on board, a pilot and copilot. They have not said what the condition of those two are, but she confirmed that they have been able to get the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. Those have been recovered.
Here's something else that stood out in what she said. She called the accident devastating, saying what she saw was utter devastation on the ground. She also revealed what happened on the ground to some of those vehicles, including what she called a white Ford Econoline van that was owned by a company that was contracted to clean the airlines and that there were seven people aboard that van. She says that van, she described it as being torn apart.
Let's bring in CNN safety analyst, former FAA safety inspector David Soucie, and CNN aviation analyst, former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz.
I'm going to start with you, David. When you listen to what you heard there, she really explained that this scene is still extremely dangerous right now, saying there's fuel everywhere. What did you think? SOUCIE: Yeah, absolutely. That's one of the things you have to make sure of as an investigator is that you're protecting the investigators themselves. So that's a very good point that she brought up.
One of the things that seemed to be a theme, especially from the question she was receiving, is about EMAS, the arresting -- the energy arresting process at the end of the runway. Now this airport we need to make clear did not meet the strict requirements of that or did meet the requirements of that arresting system because it had 1,000 feet available after the runway. So EMAS would not be required in this situation.
But we also have to be concerned about the fact that EMAS would not necessarily have fixed this. There still could have been problems after the fact. It could have busted through. There's a very heavy aircraft. It was going at 130 miles per hour.
So even EMAS would have had a very difficult time trying to stop the aircraft. What we have to do is look before that and say what was it that could have been mitigated in these hazards before it got there. So, I would investigate and I'm sure they will investigate more, as they mentioned, the relationship between Air 21 and Amazon Prime.
What about training? Who does the training? Do they have operational procedures to communicate what the requirements are for the pilots ahead of time if that could have led to the high approach speeds, those kinds of things? There's so much more that could have been mitigated, could have stopped this from happening you can't just look at the end and look at the proximate ending of what happened and say this is how we fix it.
You have to figure out why it got there in the first place. So I would caution against that, you know, solution bias if you will and just which they will NTSB is very good at doing that -- so I just wanted to point that out.
SIDNER: Yeah, they're going through it thoroughly, as they always do, and not jumping to conclusions immediately.
I want to try to get back to our Pete Muntean, who is a correspondent, but also a pilot.
And you asked the question, what did she see? What did the scene look like? What did you hear from her?
MUNTEAN: The quote from NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy, utter devastation, that there are parts of airplane combined with parts of cars, perimeter fence, tire marks as this plane careened off the runway initially at 130 miles per hour and then in the next 1,700 feet or so came to a rest in a parking lot occupied by Tesla cyber cabs. The big thing here that we learned is that this plane essentially hit a Ford Econoline van with seven people on board belonging to an airport company. That was on the interior perimeter road.
So, after the airport runway, but inside the airport fence, she said that truck, that van was essentially destroyed. This airplane also hit a Toyota Corolla crossover. Several people were on board that car as well. So, this investigation has really become a multimodal one.
So many questions now about what could have prevented. definitely a requirement at this airport to have that engineer material arresting system but this is something that investigators will really look into deeply.
I did ask Chair Homendy about just the sheer number of what are called runway excursions. We've talked a lot about runway incursions which are airplanes on the wrong runway at the wrong time that those type of incidents soared in 2023. Runway excursions are when an airplane leaves the runway typically those don't make much in the way of news.
And there have been an unprecedented four saves by that engineered materials arresting system in the last year. Notably, United Express flight in Roanoke, Virginia, where everybody on board walked away.
[16:50:03]
Chair Homendy said there have been 3,000 runway excursions that have been investigated by the agency since 2008 and I asked if that number is too high. She wouldn't necessarily go there. She essentially said one is too many, calling this incident specifically a tragedy.
SIDNER: Peter, now to you as you listened along with us to the NTSB chairwoman and she asked for things like the public's help to send in photos or videos that they have been extremely helpful in their ability to investigate something like this. What did you hear? What stood out to you in some of what she described, including that she still, they're still in a recovery operation right now?
GOELZ: That's an extraordinary change in how news is covered. When I was at the NTSB, there were very little in terms of visual eyewitness reports and the eyewitness reports that we would get were often not particularly useful because an accident is such a shocking event. I don't know how a number of times we interviewed eyewitnesses and they said the plane was on fire. before it crashed.
Well, the plane wasn't on fire. But it's such a shocking event that eyewitnesses had to be, you had to really examine what they had to say. Nowadays, with citizen journalists almost, with videos so ubiquitous across, it is essential to investigations. And the NTSB relies on it. And it has helped solve investigations in the past, and it's going to help with this one.
SIDNER: I do want to, David, look at one of the pictures that we have gotten. We have a picture of one of the vehicles hit, and you heard the NTSB chairwoman, Jennifer Homendy, talk about one of these vehicles. One was an SUV where you saw the, you know, deployment of airbags.
But I think this might be that Econoline van that had seven people in it. Yes, that's it because it's a white, white Ford Econoline. She described it as being torn apart. Now we're seeing the actual footage of that van. You imagine that that would be a place where there could be terrible injuries if not people killed. What do you see in that picture? SOUCIE: Well, you can see just how powerful the energy is. The kinetic energy of that airplane going 130 miles an hour with that kind of weight is thousands of joules of energy that can be dispersed or that can be slowed. The friction on the runway, the friction on the grass, those kinds of things tend to slow it down. However, that van, the way that it was hit, it looks like it had nothing to do with slowing the airplane down. It just absorbed whatever energy was coming at it and just distributed it through the entire -- entire van from the front to the back.
So, yeah, there was -- I doubt there was any survivability in that van for sure. But she did say there were seven people, so there must have been some survivors since there's only five reported deaths.
SIDNER: That's right. Five reported dead, five reported injured and some of those injuries very serious, critical.
Let me get to Pete, back to Pete Muntean, who was there on the scene, has been on the scene very closely after this happened. Pete, give us some sense about what's next, what we are expecting, what the NTSB is saying about what its role is next as they go through all of this debris piece by piece.
MUNTEAN: The NTSB planted the flag here in this press conference tomorrow. They'll have another one at 4:00 p.m., maybe with some key bullet points from the voice recorder and the flight data. That's typically what to do. Nothing set in stone here yet.
We do know, and I just heard from NTSB spokesperson Eric Weiss, that the voice recorder and data recorder are being sent on a 7:22 p.m. flight here from Miami International Airport back to D.C. where it'll go to the NTSB recorders lab where they will begin to analyze that data.
What is so key about the voice recorder is we will hear the interplay or the NTSB rather will hear the interplay between the pilot and copilot in the cockpit. What the air traffic control audio does not give us a clue into is what was taking place in the cockpit. Did they realize they were landing too long or too fast? That has come into play.
Essentially runway overruns of this type, it'll be so critical for investigators to hear that, Sara.
SIDNER: Absolutely. Hard to listen to, but knowing that they're doing the best job that they can with dozens of investigators out there.
Pete Muntean, thank you for your reporting expertise as always, as well as David Soucie and Peter Goelz.
[16:55:00]
Appreciate you all.
"THE LEAD", anchored by John Berman, my colleague, starts after a quick break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right. Brand new details just in on the deadly crash of an Amazon cargo plane.
"THE LEAD" starts right now.
A fiery crash landing, killing five people. What went wrong as the Amazon jet came in for a landing? NTSB teams are on the scene and just gave their initial assessment.
Plus, President Trump goes after Canada throwing new insults online, even putting a fake U.S. flag over the Canadian map. And what is to come in a matter of hours, will only escalate the trade war between the two countries.
And drama outside the White House. Why a construction worker had to be rushed to the hospital.
Welcome to "THE LEAD". I'm John Berman, in for Jake Tapper on this Labor Day.
