How did an experienced flight crew in a mechanically sound plane crash in Birmingham, killing both the pilot and first officer?

Capt. Cerea Beal Jr. and First Officer Shanda Fanning died when the UPS cargo plane they were flying crashed before dawn on Aug. 14, 2013.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board have since looked into the circumstances surrounding the crash - what led up to it and how the crew members handled the descent.

In September, the NTSB released the findings of its 13-month investigation. They said the pilots of UPS Flight 1354 failed to act during several critical points as the plane approached the runway. Findings also showed that the pilots didn't have detailed weather information for their approach, which would have shown varying levels of cloud cover near the airport.

This week the NTSB released a video that focuses on key lessons that other professional pilots can learn from the crash, especially avoiding unstable approaches.

"We are viewing the flight crew's actions through the lens of a fatal crash, their worst day," NTSB Aviation Safety Investigator Capt. David Lawrence said. "But was there anything about this flight crew that suggested they might normally miss such a critical step?"

Beal and Fanning communicated and followed procedure during the plane's takeoff and while cruising. Things began breaking down when they approached the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, investigators said.

An aircraft has several layers of safety, but each has its own weaknesses. When those weaknesses align, the likeliness of a crash greatly increases, said Daniel Bower, the NTSB investigator in charge.

"These pilots were good pilots," Bower said. "They were having a bad day."

Fatigue, the time of day and several missteps factored into the fatal crash.

Before the flight, Beal was well-rested, but Fanning spent an extended period of time outside her hotel room and used her cell phone excessively, meaning she did not get adequate rest before returning to duty, NTSB Human Performance Investigator Katherine Wilson said.

They didn't note in the computer that they were flying the approach, and that misstep meant the computer was never programmed properly.

Beal anticipated that the plane was too high while approaching the runway, but he didn't communicate with Fanning about what was happening.

"When the first officer completed the before-landing checklist she was at a disadvantage," Wilson said. "She didn't have the same understanding of what the airplane was doing that the captain had. We would've expected captain to communicate this to the first officer so they could work together to monitor the approach and complete the landing as expected."

They descended twice as fast as the normal rate and failed to monitor the aircraft's altitude. The Airbus A300 crashed short of Runway 18 at 4:47 a.m.

"The crew just ran out of time," Wilson said.

So what can other pilots learn from the UPS cargo plane crash?

If a plane arrives at its final approach and the circumstances are different from what the crew prepared for, they should execute a go-around. In other words, the pilot should fly back up and complete another circuit before landing the plane.

"We wanted to create video to show lessons learned in hopes of preventing accidents like this from happening again," Wilson said.

Watch the video here:

The video, which corresponds to the official NTSB report, is the first of its kind the board has created. Officials plan to produce other videos in the future after major crashes occur.

"People consume information and absorb lessons in different ways," NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart said in a prepared statement. "This video is another way to reach pilots and aviation safety professionals with the lessons we learned through our investigative work."

At a September meeting, NTSB members had strong words for UPS concerning the ground warning system's software, stating that publications by Airbus and quotes from the ground warning system's inventor show that the system "will only be reliable if the software and databases are kept up to date."

Fanning's widower filed a lawsuit against the ground warning system's manufacturer, Honeywell.

The NTSB's final report also blasted UPS' "safety culture," based on a pilot union survey that showed 91 percent of pilots felt that UPS doesn't strongly urge its pilots to call in fatigue when they're tired, among other results.

UPS spokesman Mike Mangeot released a statement in response, saying the company "places the highest emphasis on safety and we'll continue to collaborate with our pilots to enhance our safety practices."

UPS made safety enhancements after the crash, including training pilots on automation, pilot monitoring duties, stabilized landings and go-arounds and new standards for flying into Birmingham at night.

Mangeot said it is difficult to understand NTSB's findings about fatigue. UPS schedules its pilots to fly about 30 hours a month, which Mangeot said is the fewest in the industry and half of passenger pilots.

Beal had not flown in 10 days and Fanning was off eight of the 10 days prior to the crash.

"We believe these facts -- and others -- don't support such a finding," he said.