Amazon Cargo Jet Overruns Miami Runway, Killing Five

Five people died when an Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo jet left the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday and struck vehicles on the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board recovered the flight data and cockpit voice recorders and has begun reconstructing the final seconds of the approach.

The sequence recorded by the flight data recorder shows the right main landing gear touched down first, followed seconds later by the left. Brakes were applied, then released while the throttles advanced to levels consistent with go-around thrust. Brakes were reapplied eleven seconds before the recorder stopped, at which point the aircraft was still moving at 65 knots. NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said investigators will release a cockpit voice recorder readout on Wednesday.

The five fatalities occurred inside a Ford Econoline van operated by an airline contract cleaning company that the jet struck after crossing a public road. Five additional people were injured. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue deployed more than 60 units and roughly 200 personnel; the fire was contained by 2:08 p.m. The plane, registered N1997A, had been converted to freighter configuration in 2016 after earlier service as a passenger aircraft.

Homendy noted that Miami’s runways lack an Engineered Materials Arresting System because they meet the FAA’s standard 1,000-foot runway safety area requirement. She said the presence of such a system is one question the investigation will examine. Two of the airport’s four runways remained closed as of Tuesday, producing delays of at least five hours.

This is the second fatal crash involving a 767 operating for Amazon’s Prime Air network. In 2019 an Atlas Air freighter crashed near Houston, killing its three crew members. The current investigation continues with pilot interviews scheduled and wreckage examination ongoing.