{"id":394099,"date":"2026-09-08T22:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394099\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T22:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:06:10","slug":"new-flight-data-may-offer-clues-in-fatal-miami-airport-cargo-plane-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394099\/","title":{"rendered":"New flight data may offer clues in fatal Miami airport cargo plane crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 Federal investigators are examining a cargo plane\u2019s approach to Miami International Airport after they say the aircraft overran a runway Sunday, killing five people in a van it struck<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aviation experts say newly available flight-tracking data could provide investigators with another piece of evidence as they work to determine what went wrong.<\/p>\n

Francisco Diaz, an airplane captain with experience flying the Boeing 767 cargo aircraft involved in the crash, said video of the incident appears to show an unstable approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe airplane was approaching at around 170, 180 knots, which is very high for this type of airplane,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cIn the 767, 150 to 140 is the normal approach speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz said the aircraft appeared to be carrying too much energy as it approached the runway.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo by seeing the airplane pitching down, you can tell that it has too much energy, too much speed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Video of the landing also appears to show the aircraft attempting to flare before touching down, Diaz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they got to the runway landing area, they tried to flare twice, and the airplane would float up back again,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then they floated it through the whole runway almost to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

New flight radar data may offer another clue.<\/p>\n

In an analysis for Local 10, Diaz examined the aircraft\u2019s approach path compared with the standard glide path pilots use to land on the runway.<\/p>\n

The standard glide path is shown by a green line, while the incident aircraft\u2019s approach is shown in red. Diaz said the data indicates the plane went above the glide path before attempting to correct its descent.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Flightradar24\/ WPLG) <\/p>\n

\u201cIt went above the glide path and then it tried to chase it back down, so that will make the whole approach unstable,\u201d Diaz said.<\/p>\n

But Diaz cautioned that the available information does not establish why the pilots continued the landing.<\/p>\n

Local 10\u2019s Christina Vazquez asked Diaz what could cause a pilot to continue an approach when some of the aircraft\u2019s landing parameters appear to be outside normal ranges.<\/p>\n

Diaz said investigators will have to consider a number of possibilities, including pilot workload, tunnel vision, a medical emergency, fuel concerns or weather conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have issues like tunnel vision where you are looking at the landing and it\u2019s human nature to always want to finish that flight,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cIt can also be a medical emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuel could also be a factor, he said, particularly if storms in the area made the pilots concerned about having enough fuel to execute a go-around and return for another landing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now we just need to wait for the investigation,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cIt can be many things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to examine the aircraft\u2019s flight data and cockpit voice recordings as part of the investigation. <\/p>\n

The cockpit recording could help investigators determine what the pilots were discussing and what was happening inside the aircraft during the approach and landing.<\/p>\n

Investigators have not yet determined a cause for the crash.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Federal investigators are examining a cargo plane\u2019s approach to Miami International Airport after they say the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-394099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}