An Amazon Air Boeing 767 operated by cargo carrier 21 Air had an accident while landing at Miami International Airport (MIA) this afternoon, causing operations at the airport to stop for hours. Tragically, we’ve also now learned that there have been at least five fatalities. Ugh, that’s heartbreaking.
Boeing 767 has accident landing in Miami, shuts down airport
This accident happened this afternoon (Sunday, September 6, 2026), at Miami Airport. It involves a 32-year-old Boeing 767-300 with the registration code N1997A. It was operated by 21 Air, a cargo airline that contracts out to Amazon Air (often referred to as Prime Air), which is Amazon’s air cargo operation.
Shortly before 2PM local time, flight 2I7598 was on approach to Miami after completing a routine roughly two hour flight from San Juan (SJU), and it was coming in to land on runway 30. This runway is quite long, at 9,360 feet (around 2,850 meters).
However, the plane didn’t come to a stop in time, so it overran the runway. We’re not just talking by a little bit, but instead, by around 2,000 feet, meaning it didn’t stop in the overrun area. It continued and crossed a street, and it came to a stop in a parking lot (not that there’s anything funny about this, but the parking lot happened to be right by an Amazon fulfillment center).
The plane caught on fire, with the right wing in particular suffering major damage, and basically not being recognizable anymore.
Authorities have now confirmed that there have been at least five fatalities, with more people being seriously injured. It’s not clear if the fatalities were all people on the ground, or if it involved any of the crew. It appears that the plane struck at least one vehicle (and possibly more) on the street, and that there were some fatalities there.My thoughts are with all of the people involved and their families. What a horrible tragedy.
The airport shut down following this accident, with dozens of flights diverting to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and West Palm Beach (DJT). However, the airport reopened several hours later, in the evening.
What caused the Boeing 767 accident at Miami Airport?
Miami is my home airport, and Miami is also a city where the airport is pretty close to the city, and there are lots of high rises. So many in Miami could see the smoke and “scene” from their homes.
Obviously it’s too early to tell what caused this accident. A runway that’s nearly 10,000 feet long is plenty big for a Boeing 767 to land, even with less than ideal conditions, so what could’ve contributed to this?
At the time of the accident, there were somewhat gusty winds (at an angle that made for a crosswind for runway 30), thunderstorms, and some rain. So in terms of the gusts, it’s understandable that the pilots may have approached a bit faster than usual, and the precipitation made for a wet runway, which also isn’t ideal in terms of braking.
We’ve now also seen a video of the landing, and it sure explains a lot. According to Flightradar24 data, at the intersection of runway 27 and runway 30 (right near the typical landing point), the plane was at a speed of 177 knots. Just for context, the plane’s landing speed is only around 140 knots.
But the bigger issue is that the plane touched down really late, and then barely slowed down. Looking at Flightradar24 data, it seems that the plane was at a speed of around 110 knots when it went off the end of the runway, which is insanely fast.
In the video, you can see the plane landed really far down the runway, and it looked like the nose wheel made contact with the runway before the left main gear did, and as a result, the reverse thrusters didn’t deploy. Admittedly hindsight is 20/20, but I have no clue what the pilots were thinking here, and why they didn’t perform a go around.
Bottom line
A 21 Air Boeing 767 operating on behalf of Amazon Air had an accident while landing in Miami this afternoon. The plane overran the runway, and not just by a little. We’re talking around 2,000 feet, as the plane went through the airport perimeter fence, crossed a road, and ended up in a parking lot, at which point the plane burst into flames.
There are at least five fatalities as a result of this accident, which is incredibly tragic, and I’m keeping them in my thoughts. The airport was closed for hours following the incident. As of now, there are a lot more questions than answers, including how this happened, given that the plane exited the runway at a speed of around 110 knots.
What do you make of this Amazon Air Boeing 767 accident?
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