NTSB: Miami cargo crew weighed abort after wheels touched runway

The pilots of a cargo aircraft that crashed in Miami weighed aborting the landing after touchdown, according to a finding from the US National Transportation Safety Board reported by Reuters.

The disclosure changes the accident timeline: the crew's abort consideration came after the main gear had already met the runway, not during the approach or flare. The distinction will shape how investigators read the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.

What an "abort after touchdown" actually means

Crews train for two related but very different maneuvers. A go-around (a missed approach initiated before wheels-down) is routine: the captain calls for thrust levers up, the aircraft climbs out and the crew re-runs the approach. Most recurrent programs include the maneuver.

A rejected landing, performed after main-gear contact, is different. The crew stays on the runway, applies maximum braking, deploys ground spoilers and selects full reverse thrust. Ground spoilers are wing panels that kill lift and add drag once the aircraft is on the ground; refusal speed is the calibrated point at which remaining runway falls below stopping distance.

An aborted landing after touchdown is the rarer of the two. It is not prohibited, but it is rarely the safer option once spoilers and brakes have already done their work.

What the NTSB has signaled

Reuters reported the abort consideration without naming the operator, aircraft type, runway or date, which suggests the disclosure tracks an early-stage factual update rather than a full preliminary report.

Under NTSB Part 830 (the regulation governing US accident investigations), the board typically posts a full preliminary report within several weeks, including weather, crew composition, aircraft damage and a basic chronology drawn from the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder (an onboard microphone archive of cockpit audio and crew communications).

The final probable-cause report, usually issued 12 to 24 months later, will determine whether the abort consideration is treated as a contributing event or as the central decision the crew had to make.

Why the Miami setting matters

Miami International is a major US cargo gateway, used by integrators including FedEx, UPS and DHL alongside a long tail of charter freighters moving Latin American and Caribbean cargo. The airport's long runways give crews wide margins under normal conditions, but at higher landing weights an aborted landing after touchdown compresses those margins sharply.

What does this change for cargo crews?

For most operators, nothing immediate. Rejected-landing training is already embedded in FAA-approved advanced qualification programs, and there is no indication yet of a fleet-wide directive.

The watch items are:

• The full NTSB preliminary report, which will name the operator, aircraft and crew
• Any safety recommendation from the NTSB tied to rejected-landing practice
• Follow-up action from the FAA on charter and integrator operations into MIA

The NTSB's final report will resolve the open question of whether the abort-after-touchdown consideration was raised by the captain, the first officer or by an onboard system warning, and what the crew said in the final seconds before the aircraft came to rest.