Amazon Prime Air 767 stopped 1,300 feet past Miami runway and killed five on the ground

The Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 that overran Miami International Airport on Sunday stopped about 1,300 feet past the paved surface of Runway 30, tore through a cleaning-crew van and a passenger car, and came to rest after clipping a fence around a Tesla robotaxi lot, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said on Monday.

Five people on the ground died. Five others were injured, three of them critically. The two pilots survived. Homendy had not yet interviewed them when she briefed reporters. Investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder and sent both boxes to NTSB headquarters in Washington on Monday night.

The aircraft was a 32-year-old Boeing 767-33A flown by Miami-based 21 Air LLC as Prime Air Flight 7598. It arrived from San Juan, Puerto Rico, at 1.53 p.m. Eastern time. Homendy said it was the third sector of the day for that airframe: Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky, Amazon's cargo hub, to Miami, then Miami to San Juan, then back to Miami. Two crew were on board. There were no revenue passengers.

After the overrun the jet struck navigational aids and airport equipment, then hit a white Ford Econoline van owned by Professional Ocean Service Corp., a contractor that cleans aircraft. Seven people were inside the van. The aircraft then broke through the airport perimeter fence and struck a Toyota Corolla Cross on a public road. Homendy said every fatality came from those two vehicles. The van, she said, was torn apart. She described the scene as utter devastation, with tyre marks running from pavement into grass and debris across the field.

Two of Miami's runways remained closed while fuel was made safe and while investigators waited for access to the wreckage. Homendy said her team of 32 people did not yet have the aircraft itself because recovery work was still under way. A probable cause, she repeated, will not be issued until the investigation ends. That process often takes a year or more.

The questions the board has already listed are specific. Did the crew land too far down Runway 30 to stop on the remaining pavement? Why did they not execute a go-around? What training and recent experience did the two pilots have on this 767 conversion? What do 21 Air's manuals say about landing distances, rejected landings and wet or contaminated runways? What does the contract between 21 Air and Amazon say about safety duties, maintenance control and the right to stop a flight?

We're going to want to see what that relationship is, who does what, Homendy said of the Amazon-21 Air arrangement. What safety provisions might be in any sort of contracts or any sort of policies. That sentence is the part of the briefing that reaches beyond one runway. Amazon's Prime Air network is built on contractor airlines. The NTSB has now said it will read the contract, not only the cockpit.

Miami-Dade officials confirmed that the people killed were in the vehicles, not in the aircraft. Local news and federal briefings have not yet released all of the names. The cleaning company has not issued a detailed public statement on which of its staff were in the van. The Toyota on the external road places part of the accident off airport property, which brings county roads and a second set of emergency services into the file.

Runway 30 at Miami points toward industrial and warehouse streets that serve the cargo side of the field. That geography is why a landing overrun became a ground fatality event. The same stretch holds contractor vans, public traffic and, on this day, a parked fleet of robotaxis. Homendy noted the Tesla lot only to describe how far the jet travelled. She did not say the robotaxis were occupied.

Boeing 767 freighter conversions are common in the e-commerce fleets. Age alone does not explain an overrun. Landing long, a tailwind, a high approach speed, a late flare, contaminated pavement or a brake or spoiler failure can each eat the remaining runway. The recorders should show airspeed, thrust, spoiler position, brake pressure and the point of touchdown. Until those traces are read, every explanation is a hypothesis.

For Amazon the accident is an operational and legal event. The company did not fly the aircraft with its own certificate. It bought lift from 21 Air. Homendy has now put that purchase agreement inside the investigation. For Miami International the immediate cost is two closed runways and a cargo operation running at reduced rate through the busiest autumn freight season. For the families of the five dead the file begins with a van and a car that were never supposed to share a runway with a 767.