{"id":396523,"date":"2026-09-11T03:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T03:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396523\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T03:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T03:58:09","slug":"flight-instructor-says-cargo-plane-co-pilot-was-good-student-very-safety-conscious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396523\/","title":{"rendered":"Flight instructor says cargo plane co-pilot was good student, \u2018very safety-conscious\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

KENDALL, Fla. \u2014 A flight instructor who trained the first officer of the Amazon cargo plane that crashed at Miami International Airport<\/a> on Sunday says its pilot was a standout student who later became a safety-focused instructor himself.<\/p>\n

Kamal Patel, a pilot with 30 years of experience who also owns and operates a flight school, spoke exclusively with Local 10 on Thursday about Jaime Felipe Silva Molina<\/a>, who goes by Felipe.<\/p>\n

Patel said Molina was a very good student at the Pilot Training Center in Miami before eventually becoming a flight instructor there and training other pilots.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an instructor, he had a very good pass rate with his students and always very good feedback,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember him being very safety-conscious.\u201d <\/p>\n

Molina was serving as a first officer aboard the Amazon cargo plane when it crashed at Miami International Airport.<\/p>\n

The captain of the flight has been identified as 55-year-old Joseph Carroll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Investigators said one of the pilots was heard warning that the plane was traveling too fast. One pilot then called for a \u201cgo around,\u201d an attempt to lift the aircraft back into the air for another landing.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear which pilot made each statement.<\/p>\n

Asked what might have happened in the cockpit if Molina was the pilot who called for the go-around, Patel said Molina\u2019s focus on safety would have made the decision unsurprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cFelipe was very aware of safety and understanding of it if it was him that said the go around it would not surprise me at all,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n

Local 10 also examined Molina\u2019s work history.<\/p>\n

After graduating from the Pilot Training Center and later teaching there, Molina worked for several airlines.<\/p>\n

Most recently, he was a first officer with 21 Air, where he worked for about a year and eight months. Before that, he was a first officer with World Atlantic Airlines. He also had a short stint with SkyWest Airlines, working there for about two months as a first officer.<\/p>\n

Molina spent two years as a full-time flight instructor at the Pilot Training Center after graduating from the school.<\/p>\n

He also earned an associate degree from Miami Dade College, focusing on its airline pilot studies program.<\/p>\n

Patel was not in the cockpit during the fatal flight, but he offered insight into the crew dynamics that could have been at play.<\/p>\n

Asked whether a first officer has to defer to the captain when making a decision such as a go-around, Patel said modern crew resource management training emphasizes teamwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost modern CRM training would say the crew works as a team if the FO says go around the captain should go around,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n

Asked whether there could ever be a situation in which a first officer might take control of the aircraft, Patel said he did not believe that would be the safest course of action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that would be the safest route of action,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Patel said the National Transportation Safety Board\u2019s investigation should provide more answers about what happened inside the cockpit.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he said the captain makes the final call both in the air and on the ground.<\/p>\n

Interactive graphic:<\/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":"KENDALL, Fla. \u2014 A flight instructor who trained the first officer of the Amazon cargo plane that crashed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-396523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396523","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=396523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}