MIAMI — The five people killed when an Amazon cargo jet ran off the runway at Miami International Airport were all inside a van used to shuttle crews that clean planes, authorities said.
The company said it wouldn’t comment on the crash out of respect for the families who lost loved ones. The jet overran the runway while landing Sunday. It slammed into the van on airport property, careened through a fence and then smashed an SUV on a city street. The five people killed were all in a van owned by Professional Ocean Service Corp., a company that cleans planes.
“Our employees are far more than the people who work beside us each day, they are family, and they are deeply loved. The Amazon jet was landing after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico as storms brewed around the Miami airport. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
The Miami-Dade sheriff identified the deceased as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47. The NTSB said the plane barreled roughly 1,300 feet past the end of the runway.
Due to an error in a news release from the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office, an earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of victim Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo.
Our hearts and prayers are with every employee and every family whose lives have been forever changed,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska, and Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Investigators recovered the flight data recorder and the information is being reviewed. The plane remained airborne without flaring the nose to force the wheels onto the ground. It is not immediately clear why the pilot didn’t abort landing and go around to try again. Air traffic controllers also had not changed the approach to the runway to allow the plane to land into a headwind. Airports routinely change which direction planes land on a runway when the winds shift.
Strong winds over 25 knots were reported Saturday afternoon. The flight had been 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 in foreign countries for more than two decades before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24. More than 225 flights were canceled Sunday and Monday, and hundreds more were delayed, officials said.
Because it has a 1,000-foot safety buffer at the end of its runways, experts said, even without a runway excursion system, Miami’s airport appears to be compliant with federal rules. Because jet fuel was still all around 24 hours after the crash, she said she had to be careful.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said her agency’s goal is to prevent tragedies, but runway excursions continue to happen even after the board has suggested installing the systems in the past. “Our recommendations must be implemented or we’re going to be here again,” she said at a Monday news conference. Interviews with the pilot, co-pilot, air traffic controllers and others are being scheduled, Homendy said. Homendy called the scene “utter devastation,” with pieces of the vehicles, air bags, destroyed navigational equipment and fencing along the plane’s route. Experts who viewed video of the landing said it appears that a strong tail wind propelled the plane far down the runway past the point where it was supposed to land. Two of the four runways at the Miami airport remained closed Tuesday, and Homendy said they will not be reopened until NTSB investigators gather all the information they need from the crash scene. Homendy said the NTSB will try to release the runway back to the airport as quickly as possible after investigators document the scene.
The pilot and co-pilot have been released from the hospital, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said Tuesday. Miami is not one of the 120 airports in the U.S. with lightweight, crushable material that the Federal Aviation Administration says has saved around 500 lives. Five other people were injured. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash . One focus will be on the lack of a system to slow and stop speeding jets at the end of runways.
Two people remain in critical condition, while a third is in stable condition, she said. Amazon said in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation and the company’s deepest sympathies go to the victims and their families.
