An Amazon cargo plane ran off a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring five others as it struck vehicles and caught fire, authorities said.
The aircraft overran the runway around 2 p.m. after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and crossed a road used by warehouse workers and other businesses surrounding the airport. Five people died, three were critically injured and two others were hospitalized with less severe injuries, Miami-Dade County officials said at a news conference.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the pilots survived or whether those killed were all in vehicles when the plane struck.
The crash sent thick black smoke into the sky and trapped the pilot and copilot in the cockpit, along with some occupants of nearby cars, Miami-Dade Rescue Fire Chief Ray Jadallah said. Crews also had to free a person trapped under a vehicle, according to the department.
The crash halted flights at the busy airport for much of the afternoon. About 200 emergency personnel responded and found the plane engulfed in heavy flames and smoke from an engine compartment fire, the fire department said. Firefighters used foam from specialized airport firefighting units to put out the blaze, and crews were still dealing with a fuel leak hours later.
The Prime Air plane came to rest beside a roadway near two semitrucks, images showed. The aircraft appeared to be resting on its belly and was largely intact despite the fire.
A 32-Year-Old Boeing 767
The flight was operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North Carolina. The Boeing 767, which is 32 years old, was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines for more than two decades before it was converted into a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.
More than 160 flights were canceled and nearly 325 delayed by late Sunday, according to FlightAware, a site that tracks flight disruptions. Officials at Orlando International Airport, more than 200 miles north of Miami, said some flights were diverted there.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to Miami, led by Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, to investigate.
Amazon said in a statement that it would cooperate with any investigation.
“We’re heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today’s incident at Miami International Airport,” the company said. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating loss.”
A Second Cargo Crash In Two Years
Last year, a UPS plane crashed after losing an engine while accelerating down the runway at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport. That crash killed all three pilots on board and 12 people on the ground, and injured 23 more.
Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said a 767 cargo aircraft would typically be staffed by just a pilot and copilot on domestic flights. A third pilot would be added for an international flight, and a fourth would be required for a long-haul international route.
Arroyo, a retired longtime United Airlines pilot, said he wants to know whether the Amazon plane landed within the runway’s touchdown zone, and if it landed beyond that zone, why the crew didn’t abort and go around for another attempt. The touchdown zone is typically within the first 3,000 feet of a runway.
“Did the aircraft land within the required touchdown zone?” Arroyo asked. “If it did, what happened?”
Video Shows Plane ‘Floating’ Above The Runway
Mary Schiavo, a pilot and former inspector general of the Transportation Department, said video of the landing posted online shows the Amazon plane floating above the runway for an extended period without the nose flaring upward to force the main landing gear onto the ground.
“It didn’t touch down right away, and so it lost a lot of critical real estate by just continuing to float over the runway. It was literally still flying,” Schiavo said.
She noted that Miami International Airport does not have the arresting systems the FAA says have been installed at more than 120 airports nationwide to safely stop planes that overrun a runway. Those systems use beds of lightweight, crushable material at the end of a runway, and the FAA credits them with helping save at least 497 lives aboard planes that ran past runway ends.
How Runway Overruns Typically Unfold
A runway overrun happens when an aircraft either lands beyond the intended touchdown point or fails to stop before reaching the end of the available pavement, often due to excess speed, a delayed touchdown, wet or contaminated runway surfaces, or mechanical issues that prevent effective braking. Investigators in cases like Sunday’s crash typically examine flight data recorder information, cockpit voice recordings, weather conditions at the time of landing, and the aircraft’s approach speed and glide path in the moments before touchdown.
The questions raised by Arroyo and Schiavo point toward two of the most common lines of inquiry in overrun investigations: whether the aircraft touched down within the zone engineered for safe stopping distance, and whether the crew had the option to abort the landing and circle back before running out of runway. Go-around procedures exist specifically to give pilots an exit when a landing doesn’t develop as planned, and investigators will likely examine why that option wasn’t used, if it was available.
Airport Safety Infrastructure Under Scrutiny
The absence of an arresting system at Miami International Airport is likely to draw additional attention as the NTSB investigation proceeds. The FAA-credited systems, known as engineered material arrestor systems, are designed to stop aircraft using crushable material rather than relying solely on the length of the paved runway strip. They have been installed at over 120 U.S. airports, particularly those where runway safety areas are constrained by nearby roads, water, or terrain, similar to the road that Sunday’s plane crossed after leaving the runway.
Sunday’s crash marks the second major U.S. cargo plane accident involving fatalities in roughly a year, following the UPS crash in Louisville. Both incidents have renewed scrutiny of cargo carrier safety practices, though investigators have not yet indicated any connection between the two events beyond the fact that both involved large cargo aircraft during takeoff or landing phases.
The NTSB investigation, led by Homendy, will examine the aircraft’s maintenance history, the crew’s qualifications and flight history, air traffic control communications, and physical evidence from the crash site. Findings from such investigations typically take months to more than a year to finalize, though the agency sometimes issues preliminary reports or urgent safety recommendations well before a final report is complete if investigators identify an immediate risk to other aircraft.
