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Amazon Cargo Plane Crashes At Miami Airport, Killing Five
An Amazon cargo plane crashed at Miami International Airport on Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring five others after it overran the runway, struck vehicles and burst into flames, authorities said.
The aircraft overran the runway at about 2 p.m. after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, before ploughing across a road used by warehouse workers and businesses surrounding the airport.
Miami-Dade County officials said five people were killed, three critically injured and two others hospitalised with less severe injuries.
It was not immediately clear whether the pilots survived or whether all those killed were inside vehicles when the plane struck them.
The crash sent thick black smoke into the sky and trapped the pilot and copilot inside the cockpit, while some occupants were trapped in cars, Miami-Dade Rescue Fire Chief Ray Jadallah said.
Rescue crews also had to extricate a person who was trapped beneath a vehicle.
The crash disrupted operations at the busy airport for much of the afternoon, while about 200 emergency personnel responded to the scene.
Authorities said the aircraft was engulfed in heavy flames and smoke from a complex engine compartment fire. Firefighters used foam from specialised airport firefighting units to extinguish the blaze, while crews continued dealing with a fuel leak on the plane hours later.
Images showed the Prime Air aircraft resting beside a roadway near two semitrucks. The plane appeared to be resting on its belly and remained largely intact despite the fire.
The flight was operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North Carolina.
The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines for more than two decades before being converted into a cargo aircraft in 2015, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
The incident also caused significant disruption to air travel, with more than 160 flights cancelled and nearly 325 delayed by late Sunday, according to FlightAware. Officials at Orlando International Airport, more than 200 miles (320 km) north of Miami, said some flights were diverted there.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to Miami, led by Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, to investigate the crash.
Amazon said it would cooperate with any investigation.
“We’re heartbroken to learn that five people lost their lives in today’s incident at Miami International Airport,” the company said. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families, loved ones, and all those affected by this devastating loss.”
The crash comes after a UPS cargo plane crashed last year after losing its engine while accelerating down the runway at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport. The crash killed all three pilots and 12 people on the ground, while 23 others were injured.
Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said a Boeing 767 cargo aircraft would typically have only a pilot and copilot on domestic flights. A third pilot would be added for an international flight, while a long-haul international flight would require a fourth pilot.
Arroyo, a retired longtime United Airlines pilot, said he wanted to know whether the Amazon plane landed in the touchdown zone of the runway and, if it did not, why the crew did not abort the landing and go around for another attempt.
He said the landing zone is typically within the first 3,000 feet (914 metres) of a runway.
“Did the aircraft land within the required touchdown zone?” he asked. “If it did, what happened?”
Mary Schiavo, a pilot and former inspector general of the Transportation Department, said video posted online of the landing showed the Amazon plane floating above the runway for an extended period without flaring its nose upward to force the main landing gear onto the ground.
“It didn’t touch down right away, and so it lost a lot of critical real estate by just continuing to float over the runway. It was literally still flying,” Schiavo said.
She noted that Miami International Airport is not equipped with arresting systems that the Federal Aviation Administration says have been installed at more than 120 airports nationwide to safely stop aircraft that go beyond the end of a runway.
Those systems use beds of lightweight, crushable material.
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