© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 7.13.0
This crash looks like a machine that failed its crew. A 767 built in 1994 as a passenger jet and later converted to haul freight came down with thrust reversers that never deployed, stripping away the deceleration a heavy cargo plane needs. When the equipment doesn't do its job, no amount of skill in the cockpit will stop 200,000 pounds of airplane before the pavement runs out.
Blaming the jet dodges the obvious: this landing should never have been attempted. Touching down halfway along the runway with a 30-knot tailwind and only about 7,000 feet left, fast and unstable with the left main gear off the pavement, is a setup for disaster. A go-around was the right call, and even with an equipment failure, that missed approach was the one option that would have saved lives.