Flight recorders recovered after Amazon cargo plane overruns Miami runway

Investigators have retrieved the black boxes from the Amazon cargo jet that crashed at Miami International Airport, but finding and recovering the victims is still the first priority, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says.

Five people died and five more were seriously hurt when a Boeing 767-300, flown by contractor 21 Air, ran off the end of the runway while landing just before 14:00 local time on Sunday. The aircraft hit a cleaning van with seven people inside and a Toyota with three passengers.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said it is too soon to say what went wrong. The jet had two crew on board and was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico — its third flight of the day. After leaving the runway it struck navigation equipment, smashed through a perimeter fence, hit the two vehicles and stopped about 1,300ft (394m) beyond the runway. Homendy called the scene “devastating,” with wreckage from the plane, cars and fencing scattered across the ground.

What investigators will look at

The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been sent to NTSB headquarters. Teams will review the flight history, crew training and experience, radar, aircraft performance, systems and engines, and the weather. BBC Verify earlier noted an active thunderstorm near the airport, with gusts up to 26 knots.

Two of the airport’s four runways stayed closed. The crash hit over the Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest travel periods in the US, so more disruption is expected.

Amazon said it was “heartbroken” by the deaths and is working with the authorities. 21 Air also offered condolences and said it is co-operating.

What this means for Amazon

The aircraft was not flown by Amazon itself but by 21 Air on Amazon’s cargo network, which is how a large share of Prime and other time-sensitive freight moves. That still puts Amazon in the spotlight: customers and regulators will ask how tightly the company vets and oversees contract operators, especially at a busy gateway like Miami. Short-term, closed runways and a damaged airframe can delay packages that were meant to keep moving over a holiday weekend.

Longer-term, the investigation - including questions about weather, runway safety equipment and crew procedures, could lead to tougher standards for Amazon Air partners, higher insurance costs and more public pressure on Amazon to treat aviation safety as part of its brand, not just a vendor issue. Amazon’s early statement of condolence and co-operation is the start of that reputational test, not the end of it.