Five people were killed when an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane overran the runway while landing at Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon, struck multiple vehicles on a road bordering the airport, and caught fire, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said.
The aircraft, operating as Prime Air Flight 7598, was a 32-year-old Boeing 767-300 cargo freighter that had departed from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It went down around 1:58 p.m. local time while landing on Runway 30, a diagonal runway more than 9,000 feet long at the airport’s northwest end.
What happened on the ground
The plane continued past the runway and airfield boundary onto a road surrounding the airport, colliding with several vehicles before catching fire. More than 60 Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units responded to the scene to extinguish the flames and assess patients.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office says five people died in the crash. Of the survivors, three are hospitalized in critical condition and two more are being treated for less severe injuries. The plane’s two pilots were among those taken to area hospitals, according to a source with knowledge of the incident who told NBC6 that patients were split between Jackson South Medical Center and Jackson Memorial Hospital. Officials have not released the identities of those killed.
Airport operations
All runways and taxiways at Miami International Airport were closed following the crash, and the FAA issued a ground stop for the airport around 2:30 p.m. Roughly 250 flights were delayed as of Sunday afternoon. Two of the airport’s four runways have since reopened, though the FAA has cautioned that arrivals and departures will resume at a reduced rate and that delays are likely to continue into the evening.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged travelers moving through the area to expect significant delays and possible cancellations. An Amazon spokesperson said the company is “still gathering details” and is working with local authorities to understand what happened.
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigative team to Miami. The FAA confirmed its involvement and said it will investigate. Neither agency has released findings on a cause, and no official cause has been determined as of this writing.
This is a developing story. BeezLoop News will update this article as officials release more information.
Sources: NBC 6 South Florida · NBC News · CNN · ClickOnDetroit/KSAT · ABC News · CBS Miami · Local 10
