Miami Airport Plane Crash: Amazon Cargo Flight 7598 Investigation Details

A Boeing 767 cargo aircraft flying under the Amazon Prime Air brand overran a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday, killing five people and injuring five others. Federal investigators are examining what caused the crash.

Five people died Sunday afternoon when a cargo plane flying for Amazon Prime Air overran a runway at Miami International Airport and struck two vehicles near the airport perimeter. Five others were injured, three of them critically.
The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to the scene, and both the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration have opened formal investigations. No cause has been determined.

What Happened at Miami International Airport?

The aircraft, identified by the FAA as Prime Air Flight 7598, was a Boeing 767-300 cargo jet operated by 21 Air LLC, a Miami-based cargo carrier, on behalf of Amazon. It overran runway 30 while landing at approximately 1:53 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 6, 2026.
According to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, the flight had departed from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was carrying two crew members. Homendy said it was the aircraft’s third flight of the day, having flown from Cincinnati to Miami to San Juan before returning to Miami.
The plane traveled roughly 1,300 feet past the end of the paved runway surface, according to Homendy. It struck a 2012 Ford Econoline van carrying seven employees of Professional Ocean Service Corporation, an aircraft cleaning company, before breaching the airport’s perimeter fence and colliding with a Toyota Corolla Cross SUV on an adjacent roadway.

How Many People Were Killed or Injured?

Miami-Dade officials confirmed five fatalities and five injuries in an evening press conference Sunday. Of the injured, three were listed in critical condition and two sustained less severe injuries; two were transferred to a local hospital for treatment.
The two crew members aboard the aircraft have not been publicly identified as of this writing. Authorities have not released the names of those killed or injured in the vehicles struck on the ground.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said more than 60 units and roughly 200 personnel responded to the scene. Officials described the aircraft as having caught fire on impact, with heavy flames and smoke visible from the crash site, though the plane itself came to rest largely intact and resting on its belly near two semi-trucks and a roadway.

What Have Investigators Found So Far?

Homendy called the crash site “devastating” during a Monday briefing and confirmed that both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder had been recovered. Investigators will use the recorders, along with air traffic control communications, maintenance records, and physical evidence at the site, to determine why the aircraft failed to stop on the runway.
No mechanical failure, weather factor, or pilot error has been publicly confirmed as a cause. The NTSB typically issues a preliminary report within several weeks of an accident, with a full final report, including a probable cause determination, taking a year or more.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office asked residents Monday morning to avoid the area, noting that the crash site remained active with a heavy law enforcement presence.

What Has Amazon Said?

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel confirmed that the aircraft was operated by 21 Air and that Amazon contracts out its cargo flight operations rather than operating them directly. “We’re working closely with local authorities and officials to learn more and will cooperate fully with any investigation,” Nantel said in a statement, adding that the company’s “deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating loss.”
21 Air LLC has not issued an extended public statement beyond confirming its role as the flight’s operator. The company is a Miami-based cargo airline that has operated Boeing 767 freighters under contract for several shipping and logistics clients.
Amazon Prime Air’s cargo network operates through a mix of contracted carriers rather than a single in-house airline. Atlas Air, ABX Air, Air Transport International, and 21 Air have all flown routes under the Prime Air brand at various points, a structure common across the air cargo industry, where shippers contract capacity from operators who hold their own FAA air carrier certificates and are separately responsible for maintenance, crew training, and flight operations.

How Has the Crash Affected Airport Operations?

Miami International Airport is, by its own description, the busiest U.S. airport for international freight and the second-busiest for international passenger traffic. The crash prompted a full ground stop shortly after the incident, which has since been lifted. Two of the airport’s four runways have reopened, while operations around the crash site remain restricted.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy advised travelers to expect significant delays and possible cancellations in the days following the crash as the airport works around the closed runways and the ongoing investigation. Cargo operations at MIA, which handle everything from perishable imports to e-commerce shipments moving through South Florida’s logistics hub, are also expected to see disruptions while the investigation continues and wreckage remains at the site.
Passenger airlines operating out of Miami International were still processing delays into Monday, according to airport officials, as ground crews worked to clear affected areas and reroute traffic around the two closed runways.
A witness near the scene, truck driver Romierkys Rodriguez, described watching the aircraft go down while he was loading a nearby truck. “We just see a plane just coming down and just had a boom, explosion that happened that you could feel the lanes just like a couple of feet away from us right next to the impact,” Rodriguez said. “It’s really traumatizing.”

What Happens Next in the Investigation?

The NTSB’s on-scene work typically includes documenting the wreckage, interviewing witnesses and surviving crew, and beginning analysis of the recovered flight recorders before the wreckage is released and removed from the site. A preliminary factual report, which does not include a determination of cause, is generally released within 30 days.
Federal investigators will also examine 21 Air’s maintenance and training records, the aircraft’s mechanical history, weather and visibility conditions at the time of landing, and air traffic control communications in the minutes before the crash. Runway overruns are among the more common categories of commercial aviation accidents investigated by the NTSB, and past cases have been traced to factors ranging from wet or contaminated runway surfaces and braking or thrust-reverser malfunctions to landing at excessive speed or beyond the intended touchdown point. Investigators have not indicated which, if any, of these factors were present in Sunday’s crash.
The FAA is expected to review its own oversight of 21 Air’s operations as part of the broader investigation, a standard step in accidents involving FAA-certificated carriers. Any findings related to airline procedures, airport infrastructure, or regulatory oversight would typically be addressed in the NTSB’s final report alongside its probable-cause determination.
This is not the first fatal incident involving a cargo aircraft flying under contract for Amazon. In 2019, an Atlas Air-operated Boeing 767 flying on behalf of Amazon crashed into Trinity Bay near Houston, Texas, killing all three people aboard; investigators later attributed that crash to pilot spatial disorientation. Sunday’s incident in Miami is a separate aircraft, operator, and set of circumstances, and no connection between the two events has been suggested by investigators.

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