Amazon cargo 767 kills five after overrunning a Miami runway

A 32-year-old Boeing 767-300 flying for Amazon as Prime Air Flight 7598 overran runway 30 at Miami International Airport at about 1.53 p.m. local time on Sunday, 6 September. The aircraft, registered N1997A and operated by North Carolina cargo carrier 21 Air, had left Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan. After leaving the pavement it struck vehicles on a road used by warehouse workers at the north-west edge of the field and caught fire. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said five people were killed and five were injured, three of them critically.

Fire Rescue chief Ray Jadallah described a complex fire in the engine compartments while crews tried to reach the pilot and co-pilot still inside. Inspection teams later said they found no debris on the runway itself, though the aircraft damaged navigational equipment when it left the paved surface. Flightradar24 recorded the jet at 112 knots as it exited the runway. Touchdown came after a 2 hour 11 minute flight that departed San Juan at 15.42 UTC.

The National Weather Service logged thunderstorms and gusts up to 30 mph in the area at the time. Investigators have not said weather caused the overrun. The NTSB sent a Go Team and scheduled its first briefing for 7 September. The FAA confirmed it will investigate. Amazon said it was working with local officials and would cooperate with any inquiry.

Runway 30 is more than 9,000 feet long. The aircraft was built in 1994 for Belgian carrier Sobelair as a passenger jet, converted to cargo in 2015-16, and is powered by two GE CF6-80C2B6F engines. 21 Air flies 767s for Amazon and DHL from an operations centre in Miami.

The airport issued a full ground stop. All runways and taxiways were closed by 3 p.m. Two of four runways later reopened. FlightAware counted more than 160 cancellations and nearly 325 delays by late Sunday, on a Labor Day weekend. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned travellers to expect disruption.

The dead were on the ground, in vehicles the freighter hit after it left the airfield proper. That geography matters. Cargo ramps and warehouse roads sit tight against the north-west end of MIA. An overrun there is not an empty overrun. The NTSB briefing on Monday will have to separate landing performance, weather, and the layout of the road the jet crossed.

Amazon Air is a contracted network, not a single airline. 21 Air is the certificate holder on this flight. Liability and maintenance records will run through that certificate, the conversion history of N1997A, and whatever the flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders show about speed and braking after touchdown.

By Sunday night the wreckage still sat disabled at the north-west end. The ground delay into Monday remained in the FAA system. For a holiday weekend at one of the busiest U.S. gateways, the operational cost is already counted in cancelled seats. The human cost is five dead on a warehouse road that was never supposed to see a 767.

Monday's NTSB briefing is the first chance to hear whether the crew reported a braking problem, a late touchdown, or a contaminated runway. Until those three points are on the record, the public file is an overrun at 112 knots, a fire in the engines, and a death count that belongs to people who were not on the aeroplane.