Five people on the ground were killed in a Miami airport crash when an Amazon cargo jet ran off the runway, struck two vehicles, plowed through a perimeter fence and skidded across a public road before stopping in a field, officials said on Monday.
The crash on Sunday, at Miami International Airport, also injured five people, three critically, and upended Labor Day weekend travel for thousands.
Only two people were aboard the cargo plane, a pilot and co-pilot, and they both survived, officials said, though it was unclear if they had been among the people who were injured.
In a news conference on Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board said it was too soon to determine the cause of the crash or what could have been done to prevent it. Investigators plan to look into the aircraft’s various systems and flight controls, as well as the weather conditions at the time of the crash. Officials did not provide an update on the conditions of the three people who were seriously injured, nor did they identify the victims.
But Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the N.T.S.B., confirmed that all of those who were killed had been on the ground. The plane crashed into a van carrying workers for a cleaning company contracted to the airlines and a sport utility vehicle that had been on a public road.
All five people who were killed were inside the van, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation who was not authorized to discuss it. Two others inside the van, as well as the driver of the other vehicle, survived, the person said.
The agency planned to hold another news conference on Tuesday.
The crash, which has caused a maelstrom of flight delays during one of the busiest weekends of summer travel, has jolted Miami and its airport, the nation’s busiest for international freight.
It was the second time in less than a year that a cargo plane crashed at a major airport and killed people on the ground. Last November, a UPS plane crashed on takeoff at the airport in Louisville, Ky., killing 12 people on the ground as well as the three-member crew.
New details released on Monday, as well as photographs and videos shared online of the crash, offer a clearer account of what happened around 2 p.m. Sunday.
Officials say that a cargo plane operated for Amazon — a Boeing 767-300 cargo aircraft built in 1994 — was on its last stretch of a three-part journey that afternoon. It had already flown from Cincinnati to Miami, then to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, before returning to Miami.
At about 1:53 p.m., the aircraft, which had two crew members onboard, overran the runway, striking navigational equipment and the van, which was owned by the cleaning company, Professional Ocean Service Corporation. (Its owner declined to discuss the crash on Monday, referring questions to the authorities.)
The aircraft then plowed through a perimeter fence and onto a public road, crashing into the S.U.V. Officials did not say how many people had been inside that vehicle.
From there, the aircraft charged through grass, hit another fence line and came to a stop near an area where other vehicles were stationed.
Air traffic control audio and emergency dispatch recordings captured the moment of the crash. “Looks like we have an aircraft that overran the runway,” an air traffic controller said around 2 p.m.
Then, a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue official can be heard saying: “Guys, the plane’s on fire, plane’s on fire. Put your game faces on.”
“Utter devastation,” Ms. Homendy said of the destruction at the airport on Monday, describing debris, black tire marks, airbags and chunks of vehicles torn apart.
Videos and photos show the plane skidding across Northwest 67th Avenue, a small public road flanked by the airport to the east and warehouse-type buildings to the west. Those buildings house logistics and distribution companies that rely on cargo service at the airport, and one of them is leased by Amazon.
The airplane’s nose came to rest at the perimeter of a 17-acre logistics terminal owned and operated by the company Outpost. Transportation and logistics companies use the property to stage trailers, equipment and vehicles, Ari Bixhorn, the company’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement. He added that it appeared that no vehicles in the lot had been damaged by the aircraft.
The aircraft had “Prime Air” printed on its side in large blue font. Ms. Homendy said that investigators planned to interview the aircraft crew soon.
Amazon Air contracts out its cargo flights. The plane that crashed on Sunday was operated by 21 Air, which operates eight planes for the company.
Keith Winters, the chief executive of 21 Air, which is headquartered in Greensboro, N.C., said in a statement that “we are devastated by the crash involving one of our aircraft,” and that the company was cooperating fully with investigators.
Two of the four runways at the airport remained closed on Monday so that investigators could collect evidence. They did not provide a time frame for when the runways would reopen.
“We hope that we can move through it swiftly because we know it is impacting flight operations here,” Ms. Homendy said.
On Monday afternoon, the weather contributed to the disruptions; all flights were temporarily grounded because of thunderstorms. Earlier in the day, more than 360 flights had been delayed and about 165 were canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website.
At the airport, many tried to sort out delays from the previous night — and waited.
Finan Herbert Sabaroche, 83, a retired educator, said he was returning from the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, where he was born. He had received no guarantees about when he would return home to his wife in Norfolk, Va., as he remained on a standby list from Sunday afternoon.
“I don’t have any problem sleeping here,” Mr. Sabaroche said, noting that he needed to get home soon. He and his wife are scheduled to travel in a few days to attend their grandson’s wedding.
Another traveler, Yony Miranda, 58, of New York City, sat slumped in a chair across from the American Airlines ticket counter. He had spent three weeks on vacation in Colombia and arrived on a stopover in Miami late Sunday. Agents rebooked his flight — but not until Tuesday morning.
“I’m not happy about it,” Mr. Miranda said.
The cargo plane crash was the latest aviation tragedy to unsettle Americans in what has been a troubling stretch for the industry. In addition to the fatal UPS crash in November, a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter collided in January 2025 near the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people in the deadliest air crash in the country in 20 years. And in March of this year, a plane crashed into a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing both pilots.
Ms. Homendy maintained that the aviation system as a whole was “incredibly safe,” though she acknowledged the suffering the loved ones of the victims.
“That’s why we’re here — to prevent the next tragedy,” she said.
Runway excursions, in which an aircraft overruns or otherwise leaves a runway during takeoff or landing, are the most common type of aviation accident reported annually, according to the International Air Transport Association, a global aviation trade group. They can happen for many reasons, including unstable approaches, runway conditions and crosswinds.
Clouds and thunderstorms were moving through the area around Miami International Airport shortly before the plane landed, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts of around 30 miles per hour, which peaked in the minute before the crash, could have affected the landing, aviation experts said.
Bernard Mokam and Ali Watkins contributed reporting.
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