LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Investigators say they have learned how five people died during a plane crash in Miami.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cargo plane that slid beyond a runway on Sunday. The NTSB says all those killed were in vehicles on the ground.
FADEL: NPR's Chandelis Duster is here to tell us more. Good morning, Chandelis.
CHANDELIS DUSTER, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: What else do you know about the investigation?
DUSTER: The chair of the NTSB, Jennifer Homendy, cautioned that they were only sharing their preliminary findings so far. But she did say the Amazon cargo plane, after it landed, hit several vehicles. One was a van owned by a cleaning company that services the airport. There were seven people inside that van. She said the van was torn apart. The plane also hit an SUV, mangling the vehicle. The words she used to describe the scene were utter devastation.
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JENNIFER HOMENDY: The vehicle itself, the SUV, you can see airbags. The components from vehicles, components of navigational aids, debris from the airport. It's pretty extensive.
DUSTER: Homendy said the scene was hard to see and difficult for first responders. Recovery efforts have been made more difficult because there was fuel at the wreckage site that was leaking, and that needs to be cleaned up.
FADEL: Did officials give any indication of what caused the crash?
DUSTER: No, but that is not unusual. Homendy did say that they recovered the flight data recorder and the cockpit recorder. She said they have teams that are looking at a number of angles, ranging from the crew's flight experience to weather conditions that day. As for the crew, Homendy wouldn't give an update on their status. But she did say that interviews have not been scheduled yet. Homendy said that she would have more information on the crash, and that would be shared today.
FADEL: Now, aviation experts have been talking about how Miami International Airport is not equipped with an emergency stopping system. Did the NTSB chair address that?
DUSTER: Yeah, it came up a few times in yesterday's press conference. This is the system known as EMAS, short for Engineered Material Arresting Systems. It is designed to slow and stop an aircraft before it exits the end of the runway. It's lightweight, crushable material that forces a plane to slow down, something like sinking into mud.
The FAA credits EMAS with slowing and stopping flights carrying nearly 500 crew and passengers. And while nearly 70 airports across the U.S. have it, it's not required by the FAA to have an EMAS system if the runway is longer than 1,000 feet, which is the case for Miami. Homendy said yesterday that the question of whether an EMAS would've helped prevent this crash will be part of their investigation.
FADEL: Now, we know flights were delayed and canceled because of the crash. Have things gotten back to normal?
DUSTER: Yeah, as you can imagine, there have been hundreds of flight delays since the crash. Flights have also been canceled. Two of the airport's four runways remain closed, and it is unclear when they will reopen. Officials say the two runways won't reopen until the investigation is finished. And nearly 40 flights into and out of the airport have been canceled so far today.
FADEL: NPR's Chandelis Duster. Thank you for your reporting, Chandelis.
DUSTER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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