Amazon Jet Overran Runway, Killing Five Miami Cleaners

Why the plane didn't stop

The NTSB's focus is expected to include the absence of engineered arresting systems — beds of lightweight, crushable material that slow overrunning aircraft. Miami International is not among the 120 US airfields equipped with them; the FAA says the systems have saved roughly 500 lives. Aviation experts say the airport still appears to comply with federal rules because it keeps a 1,000-foot safety buffer past its runway ends.

Experts who reviewed footage of the landing told the Independent a strong tailwind likely pushed the jet far past its intended touchdown point, with the aircraft staying airborne without flaring to put its wheels down. It is not clear why the crew did not abort and go around. Controllers had not switched the landing direction so the plane could approach into a headwind, an adjustment airports routinely make when winds shift.

Flight tracking data obtained by CBS News shows that four miles from the 9,360-foot runway, the plane leveled off and stopped descending for about 25 seconds, leaving it too high on approach. It then dropped at roughly twice the normal rate rather than calling off the landing.

Mary Schiavo, a former Transportation Department inspector general, told CBS News the answer may be on the black box: "What was going on in that cockpit? Fighting a bunch of turbulence and wind shifts, or lack of crew resource management?"

The carrier's record

21 Air is controlled by Houston Astros owner Jim Crane through an LLC, CBS News reported. Former senior staff say in legal filings and interviews that managers suppressed safety reports, pushed crews to fly without proper rest and deferred maintenance on aging converted passenger jets. Pilot Karl Seuring, who filed a retaliation complaint after being fired, said he was told by a manager, "It's not going to change." Former chief pilot Bruce Joseph testified he had "personal knowledge of people being discouraged" from logging safety concerns.

Former CEO Mike Mendez denied retaliation and testified, "My responsibility is to make sure we run a safe airline, not to hurt people and not to hide anything." He said Joseph was fired "under very bad circumstances" and was trying to "make up" damaging claims. A former fleet manager accused of mishandling an emergency diversion denied the account outright, telling CBS News, "I don't believe in lies."

None of it has been tied to Sunday's crash. The aircraft itself was 32 years old, flown for more than two decades as a passenger jet by foreign airlines before being converted to freight in 2015, according to Flightradar24.