The TRUE Cause of the Miami Crash

This video takes a deeper look at the 21 Air/Amazon Prime Boeing 767 runway overrun in Miami and asks an important question: what caused the aircraft to abruptly level off and accelerate at 1,600 feet before the approach became catastrophically unstable? Using ADS-B data, Boeing 767 automation logic, the ILS final approach fix at BIRDD, and what is currently known from the NTSB investigation, we examine the actual event that resulted in the tragedy. We examine the role of autothrottle behavior, the crew’s failure to execute a go-around, the reported tailwind, the left engine that continued running after the crash, and questions surrounding the evacuation. The video looks at the backgrounds of Captain Joseph Carroll and First Officer Jaime Molina, including Carroll’s Army Black Hawk and instructor-pilot experience, Molina’s civilian aviation background, and whether fatigue or cockpit authority gradients may ultimately prove relevant. Finally, we compare the Miami accident with major CRM failures from aviation history, including United Airlines Flight 173 in Portland and the Tenerife 747 disaster, where subordinate crewmembers recognized developing dangers but failed to intervene aggressively enough to prevent catastrophe. The larger question is not simply why the Miami crew continued an unstable approach, but why multiple defenses that should have stopped the accident apparently failed at the same time. This investigation is based on information currently available and may change as the NTSB releases additional flight-data, cockpit-voice-recorder, training, scheduling, and aircraft-system information.