Flight 401 was nearing its destination. The pilots were making final adjustments to the aircraft to land at Miami International Airport.
It was late at night, a little after eleven thirty.
Below is an adaptation of the transcript of the Black Box which recorded the pilot conversations.
The transcript begins with the Captain asking the Co-pilot to move the lever that lowers the wheels for landing.
The Captain then contacted the air traffic controller to tell them that he was turning his aircraft to line up finally with the runway. He does this by radio.
The air traffic controller responded and asked FL 401 to continue to runway number 9. Runways are numbered according to the direction they point at. Runway 9 extends towards East , which is 90 degrees on the compass (90 is abbreviated to 9).
"Black Box Recording"
(the purple explanations in brackets are mine).
Captain: Go ahead and throw 'em out (telling co-pilot to lower the wheels) Capt to air traffic controller: Miami Tower, do you read, Eastern 401? Just turned on final (telling the control tower that they are on the final path to land) Air traffic controller: Eastern 401 Heavy, continue approach to 9 (Heavy = large aircraft) (continue approaching runway number 9)Left Capt to air traffic controller: Continue approach, roger (acknowledgement of the instruction)
Cockpit view of an aircraft on final approach to an airport in Belgium. You can see the runway in the distance. The red circle at the bottom end of the picture is a special radio antenna used for navigation. Notice how there are lights extending beyond the runway into the field around. This is to help pilots have better visual cues. Also note that , unlike this picture, Flight 401 was flying at night. (Photo copyright with Daems Guy)
