MIAMI (WSVN) - A first responder shared his story one week after a cargo plane crash at Miami International Airport which took the lives of five people.
Now National Transportation Safety Board, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and Miami-Dade Sherriff’s Office deputies remain at the site as crews continue to remove the wreckage of the aircraft.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Canine Enforcement officer Patrick Rye shared what he saw when he arrived at the scene of the crash.
“When I responded, it was carnage,” he said. “The aircraft was on fire, 50, 60 foot flames. The vehicles that were struck were unrecognizable.”
Rye was captured on video helping victims moments after the cargo plane overran the runway at MIA and slammed into a van and SUV, killing five and injuring five people.
However, Rye was able to rescue one survivor, which was captured on social media video.
“We’ve got one breathing, he’s alive, he’s alive,” said an emergency responder.
“We were able to stabilize his condition, he was not conscious at that time. He had to be extracted by cutting the vehicle,” said Rye.
Twenty-seven year-old Sebastian Perdomo Torres was one of two survivors who were in a Ford Econoline van, just minutes away from the end of their cleaning shift when tragedy struck.
“He’s a survivor in every sense of the word,” said Pablo Rojas from the Podhurst Orseck law firm.
Torres filed a lawsuit on Friday as he continues to fight in the intensive care unit.
“We have an aircraft that was going at too high a speed,” said Rojas. “And we have multiple companies and entities involved in operating the aircraft, contracting it out that were negligent in supervising, operating and vetting this flight operation.”
The other families of Torres’ colleagues who were killed also took legal action and filed their own lawsuits against Amazon, 21 Air, and several companies tied to the aircraft. It alleged negligence and claimed that the crash was preventable.
Rojas detailed what his client endured when the plane ran 13,000 feet past the runway.
He was actually able to see the airplane approaching the last final seconds,” said Rojas. “When the airplane impacted the van, Mr. Perdomo Torres was thrown into the air. He fought for his life after landing back on the ground until he was picked up by first responders,”
The investigation by the NTSB remains ongoing. Preliminary findings say that just 15 seconds before the crash, a pilot called to abort the landing and pull up, but it was too late.
Three surviving victims remain in critical condition.
The plane remains at the runway, and it is unclear how long it will take to remove the wreckage.
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