8, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) An Amazon cargo plane lies damaged near a parking lot two days after overshooting a runway at Miami International Airport, Tuesday, Sept.
The accident occurred on September 13, and the flight recorders were recovered a day later. Upon landing, the plane overshot the runway and crashed into a van, killing five people inside. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the crash.
Pilots of an Amazon cargo jet that overshot the runway at Miami International Airport had tried to abort an unstable landing, according to information released by investigators on Tuesday (local time). Investigators will interview the pilot, co-pilot and crew members on Wednesday as they seek to determine why the jet overran the runway.
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 plane barrelled roughly 1,300 feet (396 metres) past the end of the runway, according to the NTSB. More than 225 flights have been cancelled since Sunday, while hundreds more have been delayed. (With AP inputs) Catch the latest World News and Live updates.
The pilot and co-pilot have since been released from hospital.
A former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the fact that the plane landed on its nose and right landing gear first indicated an unstable landing, according to Mike O’Donnell. He suggested the pilot might have been attempting a “go-around” to retry the landing approach. Experts said it appeared a strong tailwind propelled the plane far past the point where it was supposed to land.
The crash injured five other people, two of whom remain in critical condition while a third is in stable condition. The Amazon jet was landing after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico as storms brewed around Miami airport. “A go-around probably should have been executed sooner than that. And it seems like they hesitated,” he added. By the time the crew tried to abort the landing, O’Donnell noted, it may have been too late if there wasn’t enough runway left. However, interviews investigators have scheduled with the pilots for Wednesday are expected to provide more insight into what they were thinking at that moment. Aviation attorney Mary Schiavo, a former Transportation Department inspector general, observed that “it almost seems like there was a disagreement between the pilots on what to do. Video of the landing showed the plane hovering above the runway for a long time without flaring the nose to bring the wheels onto the ground. Air traffic controllers had also not changed the approach to the runway to allow the plane to land into a headwind. Download the TOI app.
Meanwhile, two of the Miami airport’s four runways remained closed on Tuesday and will not reopen until NTSB investigators have gathered all the information they need from the crash site.