All 5 killed when Amazon cargo plane overran runway were in a cleaning crew van, sheriff says
By Andy Rose, Maria Aguilar Prieto, Julianna Bragg, CNN
(CNN) — As an Amazon cargo plane began its descent under dark clouds over Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon, it flew past the usual landing zone for Runway 30.
The Boeing 767-300, weighing more than 100 tons, remained airborne deep into the runway – its left rear gear continuing to bounce along the pavement, which rapidly disappeared ahead. By the time it reached the runway’s end, the jet was still barreling forward at 130 mph, tracking data from Flightradar24 showed.
On its third flight of the day, the aircraft hurtled across a small grassy patch, then through a chain-link fence with razor wire. Concrete barriers designed to keep cars out of the secure area crumbled as the jet headed straight for a four-lane road.
The plane struck two vehicles, including a 2012 Ford van on an airport service road carrying seven workers with a company that cleans airplanes, and a Toyota SUV outside of the airport fence.
Five people died – all of whom were in the cleaning contractor’s van – and five others were injured, including the plane’s two pilots, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said Tuesday morning.
When the plane finally came to a fiery halt – about 1,300 feet past the paved surface near a parking lot where Tesla robotaxis were stationed – it had left a trail of wreckage. Among the debris were airbags, parts of the aircraft and passenger vehicles, and destroyed fencing, which had been catapulted throughout the area of the plane’s path.
“Plane’s on fire!” a first responder soon shouted on an emergency radio channel. “Put your game faces on.”
Recovery operations were ongoing Monday, with “the recovery of victims” being “most important,” Homendy said.
Recovery crews retrieved the aircraft’s black box, which should reveal audio from the cabin, as long as the data hasn’t been erased, Homendy said.
A 32-person team will be on site for at least the next week, Homendy said, though the NTSB will not determine a probable cause for the crash on scene.
“Know that we are deeply, deeply committed to our duty, our responsibilities as an investigative agency to determine how this accident occurred, why it happened, with one goal in mind: safety,” Homendy said Monday. “And that’s to prevent it from happening again.”
The NTSB will hold another news conference Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.
The catastrophe left Miami’s airport operating with just two of its normal four runways on a busy Labor Day and raised questions about whether the facility needs better equipment to prevent an overshooting aircraft from leaving airport property.
Here’s what we know so far about the incident.
Trail of ‘utter devastation’
Homendy characterized the incident as “utter devastation,” describing tire marks that plowed through grass and the torn-apart van.
Spencer Deno, mayor of the Village of Virginia Gardens, which he said is the closest municipality to the crash scene, felt his house shake from the impact of the crash, he told CNN.
“Within a minute, I began hearing sirens. I grabbed my keys, and my wife and I drove toward Northwest 36th Street, approximately a block from our home,” Deno said. “When I turned onto 36th Street, I immediately saw officers responding from multiple directions. As soon as I reached Perimeter Road, I saw the tail section of the aircraft, and at that point I knew there had been an aviation-related crash.”
Francisco Diaz, a Boeing 747 captain who is president of the Captains Council, a Miami-based pilots’ organization, was helping lead a class at the Boeing training center at the time of the crash, he told CNN. He felt the whole building shake and ran outside. Another training instructor arrived moments later.
“He was shaking because he was almost hit by the airplane when the airplane came out of the airport into the street,” Diaz said.
How the crash unfolded
The cargo plane – operated by 21 Air, a flight vendor for Amazon Air – was coming into Miami from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It tried to land around 2 p.m. ET Sunday on a runway more than 9,000 feet long. But the jet rose above the normal path aircraft take on their approach to Runway 30 before dropping altitude to return back into proper position, tracking data from Flightradar24 showed.
The plane had passed through a developing thunderstorm as it approached the airport, one of several pop-up storms in the area, tracking data appeared to show.
During the landing, the direction of the wind suddenly changed, said David Soucie, a CNN safety analyst and former Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector, giving Flight 7598 a tailwind that may have made it more difficult to slow down.
“You’re picking up speed instead of bleeding speed off at that point,” Soucie said.
The pilots did not inform air traffic controllers of any problems with the plane prior to landing, air traffic control audio indicated.
The plane landed almost parallel to the ground instead of with the standard “flare” maneuver, in which the nose lifts at the last moment so the rear landing gear touches the ground first, social media video showed.
“From the videos that we have seen, it looks like an unstable approach,” Diaz, who has flown this type of plane before, said, adding that there are a number of factors at play that the NTSB will have to investigate.
As the jet came to rest near the parking lot past the runway, a fire erupted around its crumpled starboard engine – on the right when facing forward – social media video showed.
Moments after the plane came to a stop, a crew member jumped from the aircraft to the ground before walking away from the crash site, one video appeared to show.
Flames and thick black smoke rose from the aircraft as rescue crews rushed to douse it with fire retardant. More than 60 fire rescue units and some 200 firefighters responded, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Raied “Ray” Jadallah said Sunday during a news conference.
The status of the victims
The five people who died were in the van – all of whom were with Professional Ocean Service Corp., a contract cleaning company for airlines, Cordero-Stutz said.
The sheriff named the deceased; the spellings of their names weren’t immediately available. They ranged in age from 47 to 75, Cordero-Stutz said.
The two pilots were among the five other people who were injured in the incident, and the pilots have been treated and released, Cordero-Stutz said. The other three injured still were hospitalized Tuesday morning – two were in critical condition, and the other was stable, Cordero-Stutz said.
Rescue workers used a ladder to access the plane’s interior through a cockpit window, social media video showed. Several victims trapped in vehicles struck by the plane were extracted by firefighters, Jadallah said.
Professional Ocean Service Corp. said it was “heartbroken by this unimaginable tragedy,” and that its employees were like family.
“Our hearts and prayers are with every employee and every family whose lives have been forever changed,” Professional Ocean Service Corp. said. “We grieve with those who lost a loved one and pray for the healing and recovery of those who were injured.”
The van was inside the airport, and the small SUV the jet also hit was on the outside, Homendy said.
The type of plane involved
The plane was a 32-year-old Boeing 767. Its operator, 21 Air, is a cargo carrier headquartered in North Carolina with an operations center in Miami. 21 Air works for several companies and is one of nine flight vendors for Amazon Air, which operates more than 250 carriers daily to ship customer packages.
“We’re heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today’s incident at Miami International Airport,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNN. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating loss.”
CNN has sought comment from 21 Air.
Investigators will examine the aircraft’s operations and human performance, including flight crew experience, training and air traffic control, Homendy said Monday.
Other factors, such as the flight operator’s contractual relationship with Amazon, FAA oversight and weather conditions, will be reviewed as part of the investigation.
Under FAA regulations, the operator is considered responsible when it comes to a crash; in this case, that would be 21 Air, Mary Schiavo, a CNN transportation analyst and former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, told CNN.
Schiavo referenced a deadly 2019 Amazon plane crash in Texas she litigated.
“Atlas Air, the predecessor to this operator, 21 Air, was operating a 767 and crashed into water,” she said, adding the NTSB cited the pilots and the company’s training in its final report. “Because Atlas was the operator, not Amazon Prime or Amazon Fulfillment, Atlas was liable and its insurers paid.”
How this affected travel
The crash scene and cleanup caused delays: Flights headed to Miami International Airport would be delayed by an average of more than five hours, according to a Monday advisory from the FAA.
On Monday, 181 flights to or from Miami were canceled and 404 were delayed, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
Tuesday’s cancellations and delays were at 42 and 88, respectively, as of 10:40 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware.
Two of the airport’s four runways were closed Monday and at least part of Tuesday, including Runway 30, where the Amazon Boeing 767 tried to land, according to the airport.
Questions about safety measures
Runway excursions – when airplanes go off the runway – are the No. 1 incident involving airplanes worldwide, according to data from the International Air Transport Association.
While the cause of Sunday’s crash still is under investigation, Miami International Airport lacks a key safety feature that might have prevented the aircraft from overrunning the airport property and reaching a roadway, aviation experts said.
The Engineered Material Arresting System – or EMAS – places a series of concrete pads at the end of a runway. Although they look solid, the lightweight material is designed to be crushed under the weight of an airplane.
“When the airplane goes off the end of the runway, the wheels crunch into it. The plane is stopped,” Schiavo said.
“An airport this surrounded by population, they need an arrestor bed system at the end of these runways to stop this from happening again,” she said.
Many airports in the US currently have an EMAS system in place, Diaz, the Captains Council president, noted.
“Like many airports in the US, Miami is now surrounded by the city. You have roads, highways, buildings all over around the airport. So having a system where you can stop an airplane when it’s coming out of the runway” is important, Diaz said.
CNN has sought comment from the FAA and the airport.
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CNN’s Pete Muntean, Aaron Cooper, Graham Hurley, Amanda Musa, Chris Boyette, Amanda Jackson, Carolina Peguero and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
