Officials Investigating Cause of Deadly Cargo Plane Crash at Miami Airport
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Officials Investigating Cause of Deadly Cargo Plane Crash at Miami Airport
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Figure caption: Watch: Amazon cargo plane crashes at Miami airport
By Max Matza and Rafael Rojas, at Miami International Airport
Published 7 September 2026, 01:39 BST
Updated 1 minute ago
Officials are investigating what caused an Amazon Air cargo plane to overshoot the runway after landing at Miami International Airport in a deadly incident on Sunday.
Five people were killed and five others seriously injured when the plane, which was operated by 21 Air, crashed just before 14:00 (18:00 GMT). None of the group have yet been identified.
The plane, a Boeing 767-300, crossed a road beyond the runway and hit several vehicles on the ground. It is not yet clear whether those who died were in the aircraft, on the ground, or both.
21 Air, a charter company based in North Carolina, said it was "devastated by the accident involving one of our aircraft in Miami."
Both 21 Air and Amazon said they were co-operating with the investigation.
"At least five people have lost their lives, and five others are injured," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference on Sunday evening. She added that rescue crews arrived at the scene within "seconds" of the crash.
Three of the five people injured were in critical condition, Miami Fire Chief Raied Jadallah said. Several of the injured were trapped inside or under vehicles on the ground, and needed to be extricated by fire and rescue crews, Jadallah added.
Over 200 firefighters responded after the plane burst into flames.
Officials say it is too early to know the cause of the crash, which is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The federal agency, which investigates all air crashes in the US, plans to hold a news conference of its own on Monday.
Experts who spoke to the Associated Press news agency said video footage of the plane's landing would present investigators with the question of whether or not the aircraft touched down within its designated zone on the runway - and if so, what happened.
All flights at the airport were temporarily grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The incident came over Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest travel times of the year.
Image source: Getty Images
Locals have described the aftermath of the incident. One woman, Beth Tilman, told the New York Times she had seen a black cloud where the plane had crashed, and had smelled an acrid stench. "It wasn't trees burning," she said, "it was some other odour that I, honestly, had never smelled before."
A student pilot, Rohan Ellis, told the same newspaper he had witnessed sirens and helicopters overhead when he arrived at the scene of the crash. Describing what had happened to the vehicles that the plane had hit, he said: "They were mangled."
Flight data from tracking site FlightRadar24 shows that the Amazon cargo flight was travelling at 112 knots (129mph, 207km/h) as it exited the "useable runway". In a blog post, the site said the plane came to rest near a car park that serves an Amazon warehouse and other businesses.
There were light thunderstorms and gusting winds in Miami at the time of the incident, the site says.
Kelly Nantel, Amazon's Director of Corporate Global Media Relations, said: "We're deeply saddened by today's accident and our hearts go out to all who have been affected."