Federal investigators are on the ground in Miami this morning, trying to understand why a cargo jet operated for Amazon overshot a runway at Miami International Airport, a crash that left at least five people dead and five injured.
The aircraft, a Boeing 767 flying under the Amazon Air program, came down after overshooting the runway rather than during a normal landing roll. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are examining whether the plane touched down farther along the runway than it should have, and why the flight crew did not abort the landing and go around for another attempt, a standard safety maneuver used when a landing does not look right partway through.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene, with one telling reporters the moment felt "surreal," comparing it to something out of a film. Emergency crews responded quickly to the airport, and the crash has since disrupted cargo operations at one of the country's busiest air freight hubs, which handles a large share of Amazon's overnight package volume for the southeastern United States and Latin America.
Cargo carriers operating older widebody freighters, including converted passenger jets like the 767, are already under scrutiny from regulators for maintenance and pilot training standards, and this crash is likely to add to that conversation. Amazon Air relies on a mixed fleet of leased and contractor-operated aircraft to move packages between its sorting hubs, and any operational findings from this crash could affect how the company and its partner airlines run night cargo flights going forward.
The NTSB typically issues a preliminary report within days that lays out the basic sequence of events, followed by a fuller investigation that can take a year or more to reach conclusions on cause.
Was this a passenger flight?
No, it was a cargo flight operated for Amazon's Prime Air delivery network, not a passenger airline.
Do we know the cause yet?
Not officially. Investigators are still examining the runway landing point and the crew's decisions before the crash.