Amazon Cargo Jet Overruns Miami Runway at 129 mph, Smashes Through a Fence Onto a Road and Kills at Least Five

The Boeing 767-300, operated by North Carolina cargo carrier 21 Air as Flight 7598 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, was still traveling at nearly 130 miles per hour when it reached the end of Runway 30, according to Flightradar24 tracking data.

A Landing That Went Wrong Before Touchdown

Video posted to social media shows the jet floating well past the normal touchdown zone and settling onto the 9,000-foot runway almost flat, without the usual nose-up "flare." Even after two sets of landing gear were down, the left rear gear kept bouncing. Tracking data shows the plane had climbed above the standard approach path and then dropped back toward it, after passing through one of several pop-up thunderstorms in the area.

The wind also shifted during the landing, said David Soucie, a CNN safety analyst and former FAA inspector, handing the aircraft a tailwind. "You're picking up speed instead of bleeding speed off at that point," he said. Air traffic control audio indicates the pilots reported no problems before landing.

The 100-ton jet then crossed a strip of grass, broke through the perimeter fence and the barriers meant to keep cars out, and struck vehicles on the road, one of which was left flipped and twisted. Fire broke out around the right engine. "Plane's on fire!" a first responder shouted over emergency radio. "Put your game faces on." More than 60 fire units and about 200 firefighters responded. Rescuers reached the pilots through a cockpit window by ladder and cut trapped victims out of vehicles; officials have not yet said whether the dead were in the plane, in the cars or elsewhere.

The Plane, the Operator, and Amazon

The aircraft was 32 years old. 21 Air is one of nine flight vendors for Amazon Air, the logistics arm that runs more than 250 flights a day moving customer packages. "We're heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today's incident at Miami International Airport," Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said. "Our deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating loss."

Two Runways Closed on Labor Day

The crash left one of the country's busiest hubs operating on two of its four runways through most of Monday. Runway 30 and neighboring Runway 26L are closed until 7 p.m. ET, per an FAA notice. By 10 a.m., 65 flights were canceled and about 140 delayed, according to FlightAware, with the FAA warning of average arrival delays of two and a half hours.

The Safety Question

Runway excursions are the most common type of aircraft incident worldwide, according to International Air Transport Association data. Experts say Miami lacks the one feature designed to contain them: an Engineered Material Arresting System, or EMAS, a bed of crushable concrete at the runway's end that stops an overrunning aircraft in its tracks. "When the airplane goes off the end of the runway, the wheels crunch into it. The plane is stopped," said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the Department of Transportation. "An airport this surrounded by population, they need an arrestor bed system at the end of these runways to stop this from happening again." The FAA and the airport have not yet commented, and the cause remains under investigation, the latest in a run of aviation safety stories dominating US news this year.