Amazon cargo jet’s deadly runway overrun in Miami struck a van carrying seven, NTSB says
At least five people were killed when an Amazon Air Boeing 767-300 cargo plane overran a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday and smashed into vehicles near a roadway, federal investigators said Monday as recovery crews sifted through a debris field that stretched from the tarmac to a perimeter street.
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said the 32-year-old aircraft, operated by 21 Air, struck a 2012 Ford van carrying seven people after tearing across grass, a razor-wire fence and concrete barriers. All five people who died were inside vehicles that were hit, Homendy said. Five other people were injured, with three taken to a trauma center in critical condition.
The two pilots were rescued from the cockpit, though their conditions remained unclear Monday. Fire rescue personnel used a ladder to reach them through a window as flames and heavy black smoke poured from the crumpled aircraft. More than 60 fire rescue units and around 200 firefighters responded to the crash, which occurred just past Runway 30 in an area separating the airport from a Tesla robotaxi lot.
Video posted to social media showed the jet descending under dark, stormy skies and appearing to stay airborne well past its normal touchdown zone. Tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the plane was still moving at nearly 130 mph when it reached the end of the 9,000-foot runway. Instead of the typical landing flare — in which the nose lifts and the rear landing gear touches down first — the 767 appeared to land nearly parallel to the ground, indicating an unstable approach.
The plane had flown through developing thunderstorms as it approached Miami, and wind direction changed suddenly during the landing, giving the jet a tailwind that may have made it harder to slow down, according to CNN aviation analyst David Soucie. The pilots did not report any problems to air traffic control before landing, according to audio.
Homendy described the scene as “utter devastation,” with tire marks gouged through the grass, airbags scattered across the road and sections of fencing thrown far from the impact zone. She said recovery of victims was the top priority and that a 32-person NTSB team would remain on site for at least a week.
Investigators recovered the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, which Homendy said should provide audio from the flight deck if the data had not been erased. The investigation will examine flight crew experience, training, air traffic control, weather and the operator’s contractual relationship with Amazon, as well as Federal Aviation Administration oversight.
The crash forced Miami International Airport to close two of its four runways into Monday evening, causing average delays of more than five hours for arriving flights on the Labor Day holiday. It also raised fresh questions about whether the airport, ringed by densely populated neighborhoods and major roads, has adequate safety equipment to stop a plane that overshoots the pavement.
Aviation experts noted that Miami International does not have an Engineered Material Arresting System, or EMAS, at the end of the runway the cargo jet used. EMAS uses crushable concrete pads that absorb the energy of an aircraft running off the runway, bringing it to a controlled stop.
“When the airplane goes off the end of the runway, the wheels crunch into it and the plane is stopped,” said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation inspector general and CNN transportation analyst. “An airport this surrounded by population needs an arrestor bed system to stop this from happening again.”
Schiavo referenced a deadly 2019 Amazon Air crash in Texas involving a Boeing 767 operated by Atlas Air. In that case, the NTSB cited pilots and the company’s training in its final report. She noted that because Atlas was the operator — not Amazon itself — Atlas bore the liability.
Sunday’s flight was operated by 21 Air, a North Carolina-based cargo carrier with an operations center in Miami and one of nine vendors used by Amazon Air. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the company was “heartbroken” by the loss and extended sympathies to the families of those affected.
Local residents said the impact was impossible to miss. Spencer Deno, mayor of the Village of Virginia Gardens, said his house shook and he soon drove to Northwest 36th Street, where he saw the aircraft’s tail section from Perimeter Road. Francisco Diaz, a Boeing 747 captain and president of a Miami pilots’ group, felt the building shake at a nearby training center. Another instructor arrived minutes later, shaking because he had nearly been hit by the plane when it burst onto the street.
The NTSB has not determined a probable cause, but the unstable approach, shifting winds and the aircraft’s failure to stop before leaving the airport will be at the center of the inquiry. The catastrophe has also renewed broader concerns about runway excursions, which the International Air Transport Association calls the top category of airplane incidents worldwide.