An Amazon Cargo Jet Ran Off a Miami Runway Into Traffic. Five People Are Dead.
Flight 7598, a 32-year-old Boeing 767 flown by 21 Air, overran Runway 30 at Miami International shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday and struck vehicles on Northwest 42nd Avenue. Five more people were hurt, three of them critically.
Five people were killed and five more were injured Sunday afternoon when an Amazon-branded cargo jet ran off the end of a runway at Miami International Airport, crossed the airport perimeter and plowed into vehicles on a public road.
The aircraft was a Boeing 767-300 operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North Carolina that flies under contract for Amazon's Prime Air network. It was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico as Flight 7598 and overran Runway 30 at roughly 1:58 p.m. ET, according to officials. The jet came to rest in a field adjacent to the airfield after striking several vehicles near the 2100 block of Northwest 42nd Avenue, one of the busiest surface roads feeding the airport, on the final Sunday of the Labor Day travel weekend.
The plane caught fire on impact and threw a column of black smoke over the airport that was visible for miles. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue sent more than 60 units. Fire Chief Raied Jadallah described a "very complex fire" that involved the engine compartments and required foam and specialized apparatus, along with what he called a "complex extrication" of people trapped inside the vehicles the jet hit. A technical rescue team pulled the pilot and co-pilot out of the aircraft. An active fuel leak had to be contained while crews were still searching the wreckage.
Three of the five injured were taken to a local trauma center in critical condition; two others were assessed at nearby hospitals. None of the dead had been publicly identified Sunday evening. Officials did not say how many of the victims were on the ground versus aboard the aircraft.
All four of the airport's runways were shut immediately, and the Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop that lasted roughly three hours from about 2:30 p.m. Two runways reopened by 5 p.m., but Miami-Dade Aviation warned that delays would ripple into early Monday on one of the heaviest return-travel days of the year.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA both opened investigations, and Boeing said it was standing by to assist. The airframe was old for a jet still flying revenue trips: it was delivered as a passenger aircraft in 1994 and converted to a freighter in 2015, a common second life for the 767 as e-commerce shipping demand grew.
"We're heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today's incident at Miami International Airport," Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said. The company said it would cooperate fully with the investigation.
Runway overruns are among the most common serious accidents in commercial aviation, and investigators will look at approach speed, landing distance, braking and thrust-reverser performance, and the condition of the runway surface. The NTSB has not indicated a preliminary cause. A full report typically takes a year or more, though the board usually releases a preliminary summary within a few weeks.
Originally reported by NBC News.