Amazon Cargo Plane Crashes in Miami, Five Dead

A Boeing 767-300 cargo plane flying as Prime Air 7598 for Amazon, operated by 21 Air, ran off runway 30 at Miami International Airport on Sunday at around 2 p.m. local time. As it left the runway, the aircraft struck several vehicles on a road next to the airport, tore through a fence and caught fire before finally coming to rest in a field beyond the roadway. Five people were killed and five more were injured, three of them critically. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the United States this year, and within a day the crash had become the top story in news outlets around the world.

The plane had taken off that morning from Luis Muñoz Marín Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was in the final stage of landing when it ran off the runway. According to preliminary data from the flight tracking service Flightradar24, the aircraft was traveling at roughly 128 miles per hour when it left the runway, several times faster than the speed at which a plane of that size normally exits a runway without incident.

The pilot and co-pilot were trapped in the cockpit after the plane came to a stop, and rescue workers had to use specialized equipment to free them. One person was pinned beneath one of the vehicles the plane struck on the road, and was pulled out by a dedicated technical rescue team from the fire department. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue sent more than 60 vehicles to the scene, and about 200 personnel took part in the response, fighting the fire and searching for survivors at the same time.

A fuel leak at the crash site continued for hours after the plane went down, forcing firefighters to contain it while they also fought the flames that had engulfed the engines. Takeoffs and landings at the airport were halted for about three hours, and two of the airport’s four runways were reopened by 5 p.m. local time. Delays caused by the shutdown carried over into Monday morning.

Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said the company was still working to establish exactly what happened.

We are working closely with local authorities and officials to determine exactly what happened.

In a separate statement, Amazon described the loss of life as a blow to the entire company.

We are devastated to learn that five people lost their lives in today’s incident at Miami International Airport.

Keith Winters, chief executive of 21 Air, the company whose aircraft was involved in the crash, struck a similar tone. He said the company was cooperating with every agency involved in determining the cause of the crash.

We are fully cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and local authorities.

The aircraft involved in the crash was 32 years old. It was originally built as a passenger plane and converted to a freighter in 2015, after more than two decades in passenger service. Conversions like this, turning passenger Boeing 767s into cargo planes, are common among carriers that move freight for major clients such as Amazon, since the 767 was the backbone of medium and long-haul passenger service for decades before newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft took its place.

The investigation has been taken over by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which sent a team to the scene led by chairwoman Jennifer Homendy. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aircraft’s manufacturer, Boeing, are also involved, with Boeing tasked with supplying investigators with technical documentation on the plane and its maintenance history. The cause of the crash is not yet known, and officials said further details would be released as the investigation progresses.

The Miami crash has sharpened scrutiny of aging cargo planes converted from passenger service, which still make up a significant share of the fleets used by companies that move freight for major online retailers. Miami International Airport is one of the busiest in the United States, so even a temporary shutdown of two of its four runways set off a chain of delays that reached travelers well beyond Florida.