By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - One pilot of the Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that crashed in Miami on Sunday repeatedly commented to the other about excessive speed during the last one minute and 42 seconds of the cockpit voice recording, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
There was not a consistent verbal response to the pilot's comments about speed, the NTSB said in an investigative update released on Wednesday that did not disclose which pilot made the remarks.
"Too
low terrain," was also annunciated several times on the Boeing 767 plane before it touched down and overshot the runway in an accident that killed five people and injured five others, the board said in its update.
The 32-year-old plane operated by Miami-based 21 Air overran the runway by some 1,300 feet (396 m) and crashed into two vehicles on the ground.
Fifteen seconds before the end of the recording, one of the pilots called for aborting the landing and the engine throttles were increased to a value consistent with go-around thrust, the NTSB said.
But four seconds later, the throttles were reduced to idle power and there were then sounds similar to the plane departing the runway's paved surface, it said.
The NTSB said on Tuesday there was no indication in the recorded data that speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed to help slow the plane.
The board's investigators spent much of Wednesday interviewing the captain and first officer before releasing details from the cockpit voice recorder.
The Amazon cargo plane was on its third flight of the day, coming from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It had flown from Cincinnati to Miami and from Miami to San Juan earlier on Sunday before the crash at 1:53 p.m. EDT (1753 GMT).
The captain, 55, received his type rating for the 767 in May and has 7,145 hours of flight time, while the first officer, 37, received his type rating on the 767 in April 2025 and has 2,655 flying hours, the NTSB said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jamie Freed)
