The Amazon freighter that killed five in Miami touched down 3,750 feet past the threshold

A Boeing 767 freighter flying for Amazon crossed the start of Runway 30 at Miami International at about 204 mph on September 6, then did not touch down until it was roughly 3,750 feet along the pavement. By then it had used about 40% of the runway. The airplane went on to overrun the far end, and five people on the ground were killed.

The new detail comes from the preliminary report the National Transportation Safety Board released on October 1, which describes 21 Air Flight 7598, a 767-33A operated for Amazon on a run from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The aircraft touched down at about 184 mph, according to the board’s account as relayed by CBS Miami, and continued about 1,200 feet beyond the end of the runway before it came to rest. The board has not named a cause.

Runway 30 and a touchdown 40 percent of the way down

Runway 30 at Miami is 9,360 feet long, according to NBC Miami’s reading of the preliminary report. A touchdown 3,750 feet past the threshold leaves about 5,610 feet of pavement for a heavy twin-engine jet to stop, and the report puts the airplane on the ground at roughly 184 mph. In the words of CBS Miami’s summary of the document, the aircraft was past 40% of the runway when it touched down. The report’s figures put the airplane at about 204 mph over the threshold and about 184 mph at touchdown, a drop of roughly 20 mph across the 3,750 feet it flew before contact.

The crew had not been given a reason to expect trouble on the approach. Thunderstorms were near the field, and gusts of 17 to 26 knots were reported during the landing window. The tower cleared the freighter to land at 1:49 p.m., four minutes before the 1:53 p.m. touchdown, without passing wind information, a gap Transport Topics described as a departure from FAA controller procedures when a tailwind is present.

Speed brakes, reversers and a first officer’s warnings

Recorded data shows no sign that the speed brakes or the thrust reversers were deployed, the NTSB wrote in its Flight 7598 investigation record. Both devices add stopping force after touchdown, and the recorded data indicates neither contributed while the airplane used the remaining pavement.

The cockpit voice recording shows the first officer cautioning about excessive speed on approach, and the NTSB noted that he continued making comments about the airplane’s speed through the rest of the recording. A recorder analysis published by Migflug counted seven ground proximity alerts across the 25 seconds before touchdown, two “sink rate” and five “too low terrain.” Brakes were applied at 146 knots groundspeed, released near 120 knots as the throttles went to go-around thrust, and reapplied after the engines returned to idle.

The captain had about 7,267 total flight hours and had flown for 21 Air since April 2026; the first officer had roughly 2,800 hours and had been with the carrier since February 2025. It was the first flight the two had flown as a pair.

The overrun and the vehicles on the perimeter road

The freighter left the paved surface still moving at around 130 mph. It crossed grass and struck airport equipment, then hit a Ford Econoline van carrying seven people on a perimeter road. A Toyota Corolla Cross on Northwest 67th Avenue was struck next. Five people in the van died, two other van occupants and the SUV driver were seriously hurt, and both pilots escaped with minor injuries.

The airplane was substantially damaged, and a fire broke out at the right wing. The right engine was thermally damaged and partly separated, and a section of the right wing’s upper skin was found 158 feet from the wreckage. The preliminary report adds that Runway 30 had no crushable-concrete arresting system at its end, the engineered bed that stops overrunning aircraft over a short distance.

Open items in the NTSB docket

Amazon suspended operations with 21 Air after the crash and said it had “supported the investigation,” Transport Topics reported. An aviation summary from fl360aero quotes the NTSB as saying the recorder data and sequence are preliminary and subject to change. The final report is expected in one to two years, CBS Miami reported, and until it lands the sequence of decisions in the cockpit stays provisional: the board has not said whether the late touchdown traces to the approach speed, the missing wind information, the thunderstorm gusts, or some mix of the three.

The aircraft itself was built in June 1994 and converted to a freighter in June 2016, with 110,077 flight hours and 24,505 cycles logged. The NTSB docket DCA26MA352 remains open, and the board has stated that no probable cause has been established.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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