Atlas Air Flight 3591 took off from Miami. The flight was supposed to take a little less than two and a half hours and travel about 1,000 miles to Bush Airport in Houston.
It appeared to be uneventful until its descent. Here's a breakdown of what happened next:
Flight 3591 approached IAH from the southeast. At 12:30 p.m., pilots contacted Houston Approach Control.
They were descending through 18,000 feet about 73 miles southeast of the airport. There were only 26 minutes left until scheduled arrival.
Shortly after, air traffic control warned pilots of problematic weather ahead.
They routed the flight around the heavy rain.
By 12:36 p.m., controllers cleared the flight to descend to 3,000 feet. The pilots are heard telling controllers "we'll go on the west side."
That's the last we hear of the pilots. Three minutes later, at 12:39 p.m., while the aircraft crossed 6,000 feet, traveling at 240 knots, contact was lost.
The NTSB reports no distress call ever came and video of the crash reportedly shows the plane nose down in a steep descent before crashing into Trinity Bay.
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