Two of Miami’s four runways remain closed Monday morning after an Amazon Air cargo plane operated by North Carolina-based 21 Air overran a runway during landing at Miami International Airport, struck multiple vehicles and caught on fire, leaving five people dead and five seriously injured.
In an alert on its website, Miami airport said flight operations will continue to be impacted throughout the day because of the runway closures and the Federal Aviation Administration’s temporary suspension of flight activity on Sunday, which prevented aircraft and flight crews from arriving on schedule. Local news accounts said some flights were diverted to Orlando International Airport.
NW 67th Avenue between NW 25th Street – NW 36th Street on the northwest end of the airport remains closed, the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office posted on X about 9:30 a.m. ET.
The plane, a Boeing 767-300 medium widebody freighter operated by charter operator 21 Air, was flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico, when it overran the runway around 2 p.m. FAA. The plane was going 130 mph when it left the usable portion of the runway. Pilots did not declare an emergency before landing, according to reporting by CNN. The diagonal runway the plane landed on is more than 9,000 feet long.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it has sent a team of experts to investigate the runway excursion.
More than 200 emergency personnel responded to the accident and extinguished the blaze, but were still dealing with a fuel leak hours later. One person was trapped under one of the involved vehicles and had to be extricated by specialized technical rescue personnel, according to the Miami-Dade County Fire & Rescue Department on the X platform.
The cause has yet to be determined. Thunderstorms and wind gusts up to 30 mph were recorded in the area at the time, according to the National Weather Service, but it’s unclear if weather played a role in the incident.
“We are devastated by the accident involving one of our aircraft in Miami today. Our deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives. Our immediate priorities are supporting those affected, assisting the authorities, and ensuring that accurate information is communicated as it becomes available,” 21 Air CEO Keith Winters said in a statement posted on the company’s website. “We are cooperating fully with the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, and local authorities. The circumstances of the accident are under investigation.”
21 Air is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, but its main operating base is at Miami International Airport. It is owned by Jime Crane, a longtime logistics executive who owns Crane Worldwide Logistics and the Houston Astros professional baseball team.
The airline began flying for Amazon in November 2024. It currently operates nine freighter aircraft, according to the Aero Transport Data Bank. Earlier this year it had 16 aircraft, but has since leased some planes to other carriers.
The 767-300 (registration N1997A) that crashed Sunday was built in 1994 and flew for passenger airlines before being converted in 2015 to carry cargo on the main deck. It was the first plane Amazon placed in its fleet in 2016 when it launched a private cargo airline to expedite the delivery of e-commerce packages around the country. Amazon has a fleet of more than 100 cargo jets, but it is not an airline in the strictest sense. The company doesn’t have an air operating certificate or its own pilots and instead outsources flying to contractors such as 21 Air.
“We’re heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today’s incident at Miami International Airport,” Amazon said in a statement. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating loss.”
Aviation experts who saw video of the landing and spoke to the Associated Press questioned why the pilot didn’t abort the landing and go around another time if he or she was having trouble getting the plane to touch down.
In November, a UPS McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 freighter crashed after losing an engine during takeoff at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky. The crash killed three people on the plane and 12 people on the ground.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.
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