Aviation experts have released preliminary findings that reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the deadly cargo plane crash at Miami International Airport, which claimed five lives.
The Boeing 767-300, operating as Flight 7598 for 21 Air on behalf of Amazon, was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, when it attempted to land under challenging weather conditions. The airport area was experiencing thunderstorms, heavy rain, and wind gusts reaching up to 30 mph at the time of the approach.
Flight data indicates that during its landing attempt, the aircraft did not touch down at the designated touchdown zone but instead "floated" in the air above the runway for an extended distance. Mary Schiavo, former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, noted that the plane "did not make contact with the ground immediately, thus losing critical distance" before the crew could lower the nose and deploy air brakes.
Aviation specialists explain that because the aircraft failed to make proper ground contact, the massive Boeing could not begin its braking process in time. Having lost crucial stopping distance, the plane was unable to decelerate adequately and crossed the end of the usable runway at 112 knots—approximately 128 miles per hour. The aircraft breached the airport's perimeter fence, crossed an active roadway, and struck several vehicles traveling in the area before coming to rest in an open field, engulfed in flames with its engines burning.
The collision with ground vehicles resulted in the deaths of five people who were in the cars that were struck. Approximately 200 firefighters responded to the scene, confronting a complex blaze fueled by jet fuel leaking from the engines. Fire Chief Ray Jadallah described the operation as a "complex rescue mission," during which crews extracted one person trapped beneath a burning vehicle while other teams broke into the burning cockpit to rescue the pilot and co-pilot.
As six injured individuals were evacuated, three in critical condition, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board revealed a significant detail: Miami International Airport does not have EMAS (Engineered Materials Arresting System) installed. These systems, designed to stop aircraft that overshoot runways during emergencies, are present at dozens of other U.S. airports and might have prevented the plane from breaking through the airport boundary.
