
September 8th, 2026
Authorities reported that all five individuals who died when an Amazon cargo jet veered off the runway at Miami International Airport were in a van used to transport crews that clean aircraft.
The aircraft overshot the runway upon landing on Sunday, colliding with a van on airport premises before careening through a fence and subsequently crashing into an SUV on an adjacent city street.
Five additional individuals sustained injuries.
The pilot and co-pilot have been discharged from the hospital, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz stated Tuesday.
Two individuals remain in critical condition, whereas a third is in stable condition, she noted.
The mangled white van, its entire front end crushed, and the SUV — so badly damaged it was nearly unrecognizable — remained at the crash site on Tuesday, along with the jet, which sat nose-down with a large soot mark near the P in “Prime Air.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, with particular attention to the lack of a system designed to slow and stop speeding jets at the end of runways.
Miami is not among the 120 U.S. airports that have lightweight, crushable material, which the Federal Aviation Administration says has saved roughly 500 lives.
Even in the absence of a runway excursion system, Miami’s airport appears to satisfy federal regulations, given that it maintains a 1,000-foot (305-meter) safety buffer at the end of its runways, according to experts.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy stated that her agency's goal is to prevent tragedies, yet runway excursions continue to occur despite the board's previous recommendations to install such systems.
“Our recommendations must be implemented, or we will find ourselves in this same predicament again,” she stated during a press conference on Monday.
Investigators have retrieved the flight data recorder, and its contents are currently under examination.
Homendy noted that interviews with the pilot, co-pilot, air traffic controllers, and other relevant parties are being arranged.
Amazon has issued a statement affirming its full cooperation with the ongoing investigation, while conveying its heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families.
The five individuals who lost their lives were all traveling in a van owned by Professional Ocean Service Corp., a firm specializing in aircraft cleaning.
The company declined to comment on the incident, citing respect for the families of those who perished.
"Our employees are far more than just the people we work with every day; they are our family, and we hold them in deep affection.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to every employee and every family whose lives have been permanently changed," the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Miami-Dade sheriff identified the deceased as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
The Amazon jet was making its descent after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico, while storm systems were gathering ominously around the Miami airport.
The NTSB reported that the aircraft traveled approximately 1,300 feet (396 meters) beyond the runway's terminus.
Homendy described the scene as "utter devastation," with debris from the vehicles, air bags, damaged navigational equipment, and fencing scattered along the plane's route.
She mentioned that she had to be cautious because jet fuel remained in the vicinity even a day after the incident.
Gusts exceeding 25 knots were reported on Sunday afternoon.
Specialists who reviewed the landing footage concluded that a strong tailwind appeared to have carried the aircraft much farther down the runway than its intended touchdown point.
The plane remained airborne without raising its nose to force the wheels onto the ground.
The rationale behind the pilot's decision not to abort the landing and execute a go-around remains unclear.
Air traffic controllers had likewise failed to reconfigure the approach to the runway so as to permit the aircraft to land into a headwind.
It is standard practice for airports to reverse the landing direction on a runway whenever wind conditions shift.
The flight had been operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier headquartered in North Carolina.
According to flight-tracking platform Flightradar24, the 32-year-old Boeing 767 was initially constructed for passenger service and flew for various international airlines for over two decades prior to its conversion into a freighter in 2015.
Two of the four runways at Miami airport remained closed on Tuesday, and Homendy stated that they will not be reopened until NTSB investigators have collected all the requisite information from the crash site.
According to officials, over 225 flights were cancelled across Sunday and Monday, with several hundred more experiencing delays.
Homendy stated that the NTSB intends to restore the runway to the airport's use as expeditiously as possible, once investigators have completed documenting the scene.
Owing to an error in a news release from the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office, an earlier version of this story misspelled the surname of victim Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo.
September 8th, 2026

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