Miami plane crash: five dead after Amazon cargo jet runs off runway

An Amazon Boeing 767-300 cargo plane ran off the runway while landing at Miami International Airport in Florida and collided with several vehicles in the area. The crash killed five people. Five others were injured, three of them critically.

The airport was closed immediately after the accident. The closure allowed firefighters to bring under control the flames caused by the collision and to help the victims. Several people were trapped inside the vehicles hit by the plane: rescuers had to carry out a complex extraction operation to free them.

The cause of the accident has yet to be established. An investigation is underway. Authorities will be able to rely on data from the plane's black boxes and on witness accounts from people who were at the scene at the time of the crash.

The plane was arriving from Puerto Rico. Its fuselage still carries the Prime Air logo, the name under which Amazon's cargo airline operated until 2017. The name was later changed to Amazon Air, to distinguish this activity from drone deliveries, which now use the Prime Air brand. Amazon confirmed that the plane involved belongs to its fleet. The company said: “Stiamo raccogliendo informazioni e stiamo lavorando a stretto contatto con le autorità locale per capire cosa sia successo. Al momento la nostra priorità è la sicurezza e il benessere di tutti coloro che sono rimasti coinvolti” (We are gathering information and are working closely with local authorities to understand what happened. Right now our priority is the safety and wellbeing of everyone affected).

The 1997 precedent

The accident recalls what happened in August 1997, also in Miami, when a Fine Air cargo flight crashed shortly after takeoff and ended up on a busy highway. Five people died on that occasion.

The temporary closure of Miami airport comes on one of the busiest weekends of the year. In the United States, Labor Day is celebrated on Monday, officially marking the end of summer.