Amazon cargo 767 leaves Miami runway at 112 knots and kills five

The last speed Flightradar24 logged for 21 Air Flight 7598 on the usable surface of Miami International Airport's Runway 30 was 112 knots, about 207 kilometres an hour. That energy carried a 32-year-old Boeing 767-33A freighter through the runway safety area, across the perimeter fence, over NW 67th Avenue, and into vehicles on the public road beyond. Five people died. Five more were hurt, three of them critically. Both pilots were among the injured.

The aircraft, registered N1997A, had flown two hours and eleven minutes from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Touchdown was around 1.53 p.m. local time on Sunday, 6 September. Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz put the crash closer to 1.58 p.m. The jet came to rest near a parking lot that serves an Amazon warehouse. Fire followed. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Raied Jadallah said more than 60 units and about 200 personnel treated ten patients and transported five. Several people had to be cut out of the vehicles the aircraft struck.

Amazon does not hold an air operator certificate for these flights. 21 Air, a Greensboro, North Carolina cargo carrier founded in 2014, began flying 767-300 freighters for Amazon in 2024. Cirium data puts 21 Air at eight of the 105 aircraft flown for Amazon Air. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the company would cooperate with investigators. 21 Air chief executive Keith Winters issued a statement of condolence. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the aircraft was part of Amazon's cargo fleet.

N1997A is a Boeing 767-33A(ER) converted from passenger to freighter configuration in 2015. It is powered by two General Electric CF6-80C2B6F engines. Air traffic control audio reviewed by CNN shows the crew did not declare an emergency before landing. Why the aircraft could not stop is the central question for the National Transportation Safety Board. Chair Jennifer Homendy took a Go Team to Miami and scheduled the first public briefing for 7 September.

The FAA imposed a ground stop. All four runways closed in the middle of the Labor Day weekend. Two later reopened. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned of delays and cancellations on the last day of the holiday. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed the five deaths at an evening briefing.

Sunday's wreck sits next to an older one on the same field. In August 1997 a Fine Air DC-8 crashed on takeoff at Miami and also killed five people. The 2026 overrun is different in kind: a landing that never bled off speed, a converted passenger jet on a contracted Amazon route, and fatalities on the ground rather than in the cabin.

Amazon Air is a network of contractors. That structure keeps the retailer's name on the tail while the operating certificate, the maintenance programme and the crew sit with 21 Air. The NTSB will have to decide how far the inquiry travels up that chain: brake and spoiler performance on a 32-year-old airframe, runway condition and length on Runway 30, the weight of the San Juan cargo, and the contract terms that put this particular 767 on this particular afternoon arrival.

Flightradar24's last airborne figure of 69 knots after the aircraft left the paved surface is consistent with a jet that still had enough energy to reach a public road. For a cargo landing at a busy international airport, that number is the fact the investigation has to explain.