Five people were killed and five others injured on Sunday (September 6) after an Amazon cargo plane overran the runway at Miami International Airport, Florida, hitting several vehicles and catching fire, local authorities said.
Videos posted on social media shortly after the accident, which occurred just before 2 p.m. local time (6 p.m. GMT), showed thick smoke and flames rising from the Boeing 767-300 which was arriving from Puerto Rico.
“We now know that five people lost their lives and five others were injured,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava during a press conference at the airport, a little less than three hours after the accident, without specifying the identity of the victims. Among the injured people, three are in “critical condition” and the other two were transported to a local hospital, said local fire chief Ray Jadallah.
The accident occurred in the early afternoon, just before 2 p.m. local time. The American aviation regulator (FAA) indicated that the damaged cargo plane was Prime Air flight 7598, a Boeing 767-300 from Puerto Rico, and announced that it was opening an investigation.
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The aircraft “came to rest in a field adjacent to the airport,” Daniella Levine Cava told the press.
Nearly 200 firefighters were mobilized after the accident. The head of the local fire department confirmed that the device had struck several vehicles, leading his teams to carry out “a complex extrication operation” to rescue “several victims who were trapped inside”.
The firefighters also had to remove the pilot and co-pilot, trapped in the cockpit, while the plane’s engines were “on fire”, he explained.
In the evening, they said they had used special foam to extinguish the fire while specialized hazardous materials units shut down the engine to control a kerosene leak.
Several hours after the accident, AFP images showed the plane bearing the light blue Prime Air inscription still stopped near the road crossed at the end of the runway. The fire was out but police cars and ambulances with flashing lights were visible in the area.
Traffic temporarily suspended
The American Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB) announced in a press release that it would send investigators to the site and plans to organize a press conference on Monday in Miami.
Amazon confirmed the accident that occurred during landing and said it was “doing everything possible to help those affected,” according to its spokesperson Kelly Nantel, assuring that the group was cooperating “closely” with the authorities.
After interrupting its traffic for a while, Miami airport indicated on X in the evening that it had successively reopened two of its four runways. Nearly 200 flights were canceled on Sunday evening, according to the specialist site FlightAware.
Transport Minister Sean Duffy warned passengers to expect “significant delays and possible cancellations” in the middle of a weekend extended by a public holiday on Monday.
In November 2025, the crash of a cargo plane from the American carrier UPS on takeoff from Louisville airport, in Kentucky, in the east-central United States, after one of its engines had separated, caused fifteen deaths, twelve on the ground and three crew members.
Last March in New York, a collision between a plane operating on behalf of Air Canada and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport cost the lives of the plane’s two pilots and left several dozen injured.
With AFP
