A pilot on board the Amazon Air flight that crashed at Miami International Airport (MIA), killing five people on the ground, warned they were travelling “too fast,” according to new information published by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
On September 9, 2026, the NTSB declared that the pilot first voiced his concerns over the Boeing 767-300 freighter’s speed 01:42 minutes before the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) ended.
The NTSB noted that the pilot “made additional comments regarding the aircraft’s excessive speed throughout the remainder of the recording”.
“There was not a consistent verbal response to the comments about speed,” the NTSB added.
At 01:04 minutes and again at 00:57 seconds before the end of the recording, a warning system is heard stating “sink rate sink rate”, alerting the pilots that the aircraft was descending too quickly.
Additionally, in the 17 seconds before touching down, the pilots were told on five occasions, “too low terrain”.
15 seconds after the nose and right main first gear touched down, a pilot called for a go-around, matching the flight data recorder (FDR) which reported go-around thrust being applied at the same moment.
11 seconds before the end of the recording, the throttles were reduced to idle power, and the brakes were re-applied.
According to the NTSB, 10 seconds before the cockpit voice recorder ended, “sounds similar to the aircraft departing the paved surface” could be heard.
On September 8, 2026, Senior Aviation Accident Investigator, Chihoon Shin, said that there was “no indication in the recorded data that speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed”. The final recorded groundspeed was 65 knots (around 75 mph).
The NTSB has noted that the times and descriptions published are preliminary and subject to change.
According to the NTSB, the captain is 55 years old with 7,145 flight hours while the first officer is 37, with 2,655 hours.
The captain, a former US Army Black Hawk pilot, received his type rating for the 767 in May 2026, while the first officer received theirs on April 2, 2025.
After breaching the airport perimeter on September 6, 2026, the 32-year-old Boeing 767-33A(ER), operated by 21 Air on behalf of Amazon Air, struck two vehicles on a public road.
The deceased have been named as Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53, Rolando Aleman Leon, 55, Julio C. Pineda, 75, Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53, and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
The five victims killed were all in a van owned by an aircraft cleaning company.