NTSB preliminary report: Miami Amazon cargo pilots got no wind warning before fatal crash

An air traffic controller failed to tell the pilots of an Amazon cargo plane about strong tailwinds before it landed in Miami last month, despite regulations requiring it, a preliminary NTSB report on Thursday says.

Just four minutes before clearing the plane to land, the controller had warned a different flight of gusts of up to 25 mph (40 kph) from the south, but “did not issue information about the wind” to the cargo plane’s pilots.

Regulations require “both wind direction and velocity were required to be stated when authorizing use of a runway when a tail wind component exists,” the NTSB said.

The 21 Air cargo plane, carrying Amazon contact-lens packages from Puerto Rico, came in fast, barrelling roughly 1,200 feet (366 metres) past the runway end at Miami International Airport on 6 September, striking a van carrying workers for an aeroplane-cleaning company. Five in the van died; two others in the van were seriously injured, as was the driver of a car it hit. The two pilots had minor injuries.

One pilot repeatedly warned his counterpart they were going too fast, on approach and after touchdown, without ever getting “a consistent verbal response”, a previously released NTSB summary of the cockpit voice recordings said. The pair had flown together for the first time earlier that day.

The report listed no cause of the crash, and the investigation could take more than a year. 21 Air said on Thursday that safety was “a core focus” of its organisation.