NTSB Release Preliminary Report into RED Air Accident at Miami Airport

Kev Cook, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

LONDON – The US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) has released its preliminary investigation report into last month’s crash involving a RED Air flight into Miami International Airport.

The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating as flight 203, experienced a landing gear collapse on the runway, following a normal approach and landing.

The preliminary report outlines the situation as follows:

What happened


This information is preliminary and will be either supplemented or corrected during the course of the investigation. NTSB Release date:​ 20 July 2022.

On June 21, 2022, about 1738 local time, RED Air flight 203, a Boeing MD-82, HI-1064, experienced a left main landing gear failure shortly after landing on runway 09 at Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, Florida.

The airplane departed runway 09 and came to a stop in the grassy area between runway 09 and 30. A post-crash fire occurred and was extinguished by Miami-Dade fire rescue (MDFR).

The airplane was evacuated, and 4 passengers received minor injuries. The flight was a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 129 scheduled international passenger flight from Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic (SDQ) to MIA. 

The accident flight was the second of the day for the flight crew. The captain was the pilot monitoring, and the first officer (FO) was the pilot flying.

The incident flight departed SDQ at 1535 after a 36-minute delay. The aircraft was cleared for the ILS runway 09 at MIA and the crew reported that the approach was normal.

The FO stated that the landing was smooth, and they first touched down on the right main gear followed by the left main gear slightly right of centerline.

The crew felt an increasing vibration on the left side of the airplane shortly after the left main gear touched down.

During the landing roll out the left main gear collapsed, the airplane traveled to the left where it eventually departed the paved surface and impacted the runway 30 glide slope equipment shelter.

During departure from the paved surface and impact with the steel and concrete shelter, the airplane’s right main landing gear and nosewheel collapsed, and the fuel tanks were breached.

Shortly after the airplane came to a stop, a post crash fire began on the right wing.

All 130 passengers and 10 crew evacuated the airplane, of which 4 passengers sustained minor injuries. MDFR successfully extinguished the post-crash fire, and all airplane occupants were bussed to the terminal. 

From NTSB Report

Investigation procedure

The report confirms that the NTSB go-team arrived at the accident site on the following morning of June 22 to commence investigation procedures. Runway 09 witness marks and debris were documented by both unmanned aircraft system (UAS) aerial imagery and field work.

An additional search for landing gear components was made in the grassy areas surrounding runway 09.

The aircraft wreckage was documented and moved to a secure location during the on-scene portion of the investigation where the left and right main landing gear were removed from the aircraft for further evaluation.

To ascertain the cause(s) of the accident, NTSB groups formed to investigate will typically review separate factors including:

Operational factors, human performance, survival factors, aircraft systems, aircraft structures, maintenance records, and UAS aerial imagery of the accident site.

The NTSB investigation is ongoing. Their full preliminary report can be found here

You can read the initial AviationSource news report here.    

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