US investigators probing the fatal Boeing 767-300 freighter overrun at Miami have revealed that the aircraft’s thrust levers were increased to go-around power 15s after touchdown, before being reduced to idle.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has not confirmed whether the change in thrust signalled an attempted go-around during the 6 September accident sequence.
But chief investigator Chihoon Shin said flight-data recorder information shows the brakes were released 15s after touchdown, at a groundspeed of 120kt, and the throttles increased to “values consistent with go-around thrust”.
Some 4s later, he said, the throttles were reduced to idle thrust and the brakes were re-applied at a groundspeed of 117kt.
“The brakes continued to be applied until the end of the [flight-data] recording,” Shin added. But he said there is “no indication” in the data that either the speedbrakes or the thrust-reversers were applied at any point.
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said the cockpit-voice recorder contains “good quality audio” but pertinent details have yet to be released.
“We’re interviewing the pilots [on 9 September],” she said. “We want to hear their account of the accident before we release a readout of the cockpit-voice recorder.”
Shin summarised key points from the flight-data recorder information during an 8 September briefing.
Operated by 21 Air on behalf of retailer Amazon, the Prime Air-branded 767 had conducted its approach to Miami’s runway 30 which has a length of 9,360ft.
Shin has not specified how far down the runway the aircraft landed.
But its nose-gear and right-hand main landing-gear touched down, at a groundspeed of 158kt, about 30s before the end of the recording.
Although the brakes were applied 7s later, said Shin, the left-hand main gear did not touch down for another 4s after that, at which point the aircraft was still travelling at 134kt.
Air-ground status on the 767 is determined by tilt sensors on the main landing-gear bogies. The bogies tilt forward when the aircraft is still airborne and rotate backwards upon touchdown.
Shin has not confirmed the effect of the delayed left-gear runway contact on the aircraft’s braking or reverse-thrust systems. Nor has he indicated the positions on the runway at which the thrust was subsequently increased and reduced.
But about 4s after the thrust reduction, he said, with the jet travelling at 96kt, the lateral, longitudinal and vertical accelerations of the aircraft “changed” and it was still moving at 65kt when the recording ended.
Homendy said the aircraft’s captain received his 767 type rating in May this year, while the first officer received his in April 2025. The safety board is still gathering updated information on the pilots’ experience and flight hours.
Five fatalities resulted from the accident after the jet struck a van inside the airport perimeter and then a car as it crossed a highway located off the far end of runway 30.
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