Prime Air Flight 7598, a Boeing 767-300 freighter operated by 21 Air on behalf of Amazon, overran the runway at Miami International Airport at around 2 p.m. on September 6, crossed a public road and struck two vehicles before catching fire. Five people were killed and five more injured, and every fatality was someone on the ground rather than anyone aboard the aircraft. The jet had departed from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on what investigators say was its third flight of the day.
The plane first struck a Ford Econoline van carrying seven employees of Professional Ocean Service Corporation, an airline cleaning contractor, then broke through a perimeter fence and was crossing Northwest 67th Avenue when it hit a Toyota Corolla Cross SUV. All five people who died were occupants of the van.
A Boeing Freighter Flying Under Amazon’s Prime Air Brand
The aircraft carried Amazon’s Prime Air branding but was owned and flown by 21 Air, one of several contracted cargo carriers that operate Boeing 767 freighters on Amazon’s behalf rather than aircraft Amazon itself owns and staffs. NPR’s reporting on the crash notes that arrangement is standard across the cargo-airline industry, where a retailer’s branding on the fuselage often obscures which operator actually holds the pilots’ contracts and safety certifications.
The Boeing 767-300 involved is a widebody freighter converted from a passenger configuration, a common practice among cargo operators that lets carriers add capacity without buying new-build freighters directly from Boeing. Miami International Airport handles a significant share of Amazon’s Latin America and Caribbean cargo traffic, which is part of why a flight originating in San Juan was headed there in the first place.
Everyone Killed Was on the Ground, Not on the Plane
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters at the crash site that “all those who were killed were in the two vehicles that were hit,” a distinction that separated this crash from most fatal cargo-jet accidents, where casualties are typically limited to the flight crew. Homendy described the scene near the airport’s perimeter as one of utter devastation in the hours after the crash, with debris and fire damage extending well beyond the runway itself and into the surrounding road and lot where the cleaning company’s employees had been working.
Both pilots aboard the aircraft survived. One witness told reporters afterward that the pilot appeared to be shaking in the crash’s immediate aftermath, telling bystanders his career was over even as emergency crews worked the scene around him.
A Go-Around That Started, Then Didn’t Finish
NTSB investigator Chihoon Shin said flight-data recorder information showed the crew’s “throttles increased to values consistent with go-around thrust” in the seconds before the plane went off the runway, indicating the pilots had begun an attempt to abort the landing. Despite that increase in thrust, the aircraft continued its approach and touched down before overrunning the runway rather than climbing away, a sequence investigators are still working to fully explain.
Separate NTSB findings indicate the flight crew received repeated warnings that the aircraft was approaching too fast before the landing attempt, warnings that preceded the late go-around thrust Shin’s team identified in the recorder data. Shin said crew interviews would help fill remaining gaps in the timeline, since some actions the pilots took during the final approach were not fully captured by the aircraft’s own instrumentation.
The Investigation Still Running
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are jointly investigating the crash, and the NTSB confirmed it recovered both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage in the days that followed. Those recorders gave investigators the throttle and speed data behind Shin’s early findings, though a full determination of cause typically takes many months.
Investigators are also examining a factor specific to the airport itself: the end of runway 30 at Miami International was not fitted with an Engineered Material Arresting System, a crushable-material bed designed to stop an overrunning aircraft before it reaches a road or fence line. Reporting on the system’s absence notes the FAA credits the technology, installed at more than 120 United States airports, with helping save at least 497 lives, though it remains unclear whether an arrestor bed at that specific runway end would have stopped a widebody freighter carrying the speed the flight-data recorder showed at touchdown.
Amazon said it was working closely with authorities investigating the crash, and 21 Air, the cargo carrier that operated the flight on Amazon’s behalf, has not disputed any of the NTSB’s preliminary findings. Homendy has said the board’s recommendations only prevent a future accident if they are actually implemented, a standard the investigation into Flight 7598 has not yet reached. A final report, including a formal probable-cause finding and any recommendations tied to airport arrestor systems or crew procedures, is not expected for well over a year, leaving the exact sequence that turned a routine cargo landing into a fatal runway excursion still unresolved.
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This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
