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?
Seems to be a lot of human error happening in US aviation in the recent past.
Are you really that stupid or is this sarcasm?
This graphic explains a lot. CSB7598’s flight path in red, compared to four other flights that landed on Runway in hours preceding the 767, including a LATAM Cargo 767 that landed approximately 20 minutes prior to the accident flight.
https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/flight-tracking-news/major-incident/21-air-767-overruns-runway-on-landing-in-miami/
I’m really surprised that, with every plane accident, there always seems to be someone who managed to film the scene, considering there are hundreds of airports around the world and thousands of takeoffs and landings every day.
Planespotters not gon planespot themselves…
I'm more surprised that, with so many people who filmed the scene, there isn't one in the cockpit to film what really happened.
Maybe our resident union rep, 1990_ can say something about it.
Did the igloo melt again? Sheesh, Eskimo, for an aviation accident, you should know that the black box will tell investigators far more important information than even a literal 4K livestream of the cockpit.
As for unions, yes, I still think organized labor, collective bargaining, etc., has it’s merits, in aviation and elsewhere, and I’m disappointed whenever anyone bashes workers; doesn’t mean I’m a literal union rep. or even a member of any org.
That...
Did the igloo melt again? Sheesh, Eskimo, for an aviation accident, you should know that the black box will tell investigators far more important information than even a literal 4K livestream of the cockpit.
As for unions, yes, I still think organized labor, collective bargaining, etc., has it’s merits, in aviation and elsewhere, and I’m disappointed whenever anyone bashes workers; doesn’t mean I’m a literal union rep. or even a member of any org.
That said, for the purposes of an accident investigation, unions can and do try to protect their members, as they are supposed to, but the truth comes out, regardless, thanks to the objectivity and tireless efforts of those tasked with learning from and hopefully preventing these incidents from happening again.
You are right about the black boxes.
But you want to know what's even better, the black box AND a literal 4K livestream of the cockpit.
But you know well who oppose having livestrams. You're their spokesperson.
(Zing! Got’em… come now, it’s literally Labor Day… give ‘em a break… *wink*)
Probably the result of straight white guy incompetence, eh ORD?
People have died and yet your headline is "crosses the street". Disgraceful.
Julio, when Ben originally posted this, the fatalities were not yet known. It was clearly worse than the initial reports were suggesting.
@ Julio -- As noted by 1990_, when the post was published, it was before anything was known about fatalities, and everyone had hoped that no one was even seriously injured. I later updated the post with fatality information as it came out, and obviously that's incredibly tragic.
The headline was intended to be factual based on what we knew -- that the plane blasted through the perimeter fence, crossed a street, and came to...
@ Julio -- As noted by 1990_, when the post was published, it was before anything was known about fatalities, and everyone had hoped that no one was even seriously injured. I later updated the post with fatality information as it came out, and obviously that's incredibly tragic.
The headline was intended to be factual based on what we knew -- that the plane blasted through the perimeter fence, crossed a street, and came to a stop in a parking lot. That wasn't intended to be humorous, but instead, to reflect the reality of what happened.
If I had initially published the post after we knew details about the fatalities, that's obviously what I would've put in the headline.
Very tragic and sad event. Hopefully aviation will learn an important lesson here which results in some preventative future action.
Ok, now onto the amateur videos. If you find yourself recording a significant event such as this one, do two things. One, hold the damn camera steady for chrissakes. And two, keep your lense on the main event and not jerking focus to capture smoke in the air to the right or a few trees...
Very tragic and sad event. Hopefully aviation will learn an important lesson here which results in some preventative future action.
Ok, now onto the amateur videos. If you find yourself recording a significant event such as this one, do two things. One, hold the damn camera steady for chrissakes. And two, keep your lense on the main event and not jerking focus to capture smoke in the air to the right or a few trees to your left. Just keep pulling focus on the THING or EVENT.
In the moment, these people filming had no idea what was really going on. Be grateful they captured anything at all. If you think you could’ve done better, why weren’t you there? Oh, right, because no one expected this. I’d probably be in shock if I witnessed an accident as close as some of these folks did. (Eh, give it a day; we’ll probably get a dash-cam within 50 feet of impact. Recall some of what came out following UPS 2976.)
Okay Timo, those 'amateur videos' you like to watch online are not really amateur. They are staged in a studio with actors and actresses.
Why are thrust reversers disabled if the nose gear touches down first? I think some older planes were designed to use reverse thrust while still in the air, just before touch down - DC-8, Il-62, probably other models.
Regarding the latter point, that was redesigned on new aircraft after an accident which was caused by thrust reversers being activated while in-flight. In regards to your first sentence, I have no idea. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me will comment.
After Lauda Air flight 4, some Boeing thrust reverser systems (at least those on the 767 and 757) were updated to prevent accidental deployment in flight.
I believe thrust reversers cannot activate in case you need to go around before all wheels are down
As others have stated, modern aircraft thrust reversers are inhibited from activation in flight. The way the aircraft determines that it's on the ground is via squat switches, or weight-on-wheel sensors, on the main gear. The main gear are used for this purpose because they are supposed to be the last wheels to come off the ground at takeoff, and the first to touch ground on landing... thus, if there is no weight on the...
As others have stated, modern aircraft thrust reversers are inhibited from activation in flight. The way the aircraft determines that it's on the ground is via squat switches, or weight-on-wheel sensors, on the main gear. The main gear are used for this purpose because they are supposed to be the last wheels to come off the ground at takeoff, and the first to touch ground on landing... thus, if there is no weight on the main gear, the aircraft is presumed to be in flight.
5 dead. Seems like a very reckless landing to be honest. Unless there was some issue with the aircraft, hope these pilots are brought up on manslaughter charges.
Wow you should work at NTSB or any kind of investigator work.
You already identify the perpetrators and condemned them in less than 12 hours.
What makes you think they got out alive?
Ross they are being treated in hospitals as per every report on every article from major news sites
No major news site reports that they are being treated in hospitals. There are five dead and five in hospitals. At 1pm Monday, the NY Times reports, "Officials have not identified the victims, nor specified if those killed were aboard the plane or were on the ground."
Slow down cowboy. There is presumed innocence in these here Unied States.
Oh please Eskimo. Just look at the data set and videos. Everything about that approach was unstable. Descending at too high a rate, way above typical vref, touching down well beyond the landing zone. I'm not sure if you saw the later videos, but they had so much energy in that aircraft, they were landing Russian-style, nose gear first, struggling to get the mains to plant. They couldn't even get the reversers to deploy because...
Oh please Eskimo. Just look at the data set and videos. Everything about that approach was unstable. Descending at too high a rate, way above typical vref, touching down well beyond the landing zone. I'm not sure if you saw the later videos, but they had so much energy in that aircraft, they were landing Russian-style, nose gear first, struggling to get the mains to plant. They couldn't even get the reversers to deploy because the aircraft wasn't sitting well enough to allow them to open.
I'm not saying the pilots went out there with the intention of killing anyone, but as I said originally, if this wasn't something aircraft-related, this whole thing could have been avoided.
Re: Ross - The pilots are alive. Check the news reports.
And you even double down on yourself.
Not only should you work at NTSB or any kind of investigator work because you condemn survivors in 12 hours.
The way you double down and stand by your 12 hour conviction in less than 24 hours. You should work for DJT too.
You deserve the Nobel Investigator prize from FIFA.
Leaving the runway at 110kt is crazy, that's like a failed takeoff, not an overrun. They didn't do anything to try to slow down or touch and go??
Not that I'm drawing any conclusions here.
But one possibility has always been human error. Again, too soon to tell.
But I can tell you one thing. Most pilots are not suicidal. Saying they're not doing anything is very ignorant. They probably did everything they possibly can in the limited time they have.
But humans have our limits. We cannot process 10,000 data points in a millisecond and react within that millisecond.
Look humans...
Not that I'm drawing any conclusions here.
But one possibility has always been human error. Again, too soon to tell.
But I can tell you one thing. Most pilots are not suicidal. Saying they're not doing anything is very ignorant. They probably did everything they possibly can in the limited time they have.
But humans have our limits. We cannot process 10,000 data points in a millisecond and react within that millisecond.
Look humans make errors. We're just humans. But human errors have consequences. Sometimes it cost lives.
That's why I always have issues with allowing needless casualties when a lot can be prevented by not relying on humans.
I am at MIA and airport is down now
You forgot the /s.
Oh no. My prayers for the families. May the investigation give them peace.
it was bare and even regular braking could have stopped this aircraft....also not sure why a go around wasnt called.....we will find out
You can see the left engine there its no thrust reverse deployment.
MIA is the largest cargo airport in the contiguous 48, not counting the FedEx and UPS hubs. Is it really a good idea to have that many flights operating through a major residential area? Maybe someone should consider building a huge jetport in the nearby Everglades.
You MIA fanboys are so cringe. The lengths you go to to justify MIA is bizarre.
*If you don’t count ANC …and you don’t count MEM or SDF…MIA is the biggest cargo airport in the U.S.*
NO, it’s not. Stop making up such weird exceptions to justify gooning out over an airport.
How am I a fanboy if I think it has too many flights competing for too few slots on a Sunday afternoon? And if it's not the biggest by volume, except for Alaska and the overnight package hubs, then what is and by how much?
TMZ reporting 5 dead.
Speculation: Brake failure following hot landing.
Brakes don’t do much good when the wheels are not touching the ground.
There's technology already out there in the market that could have made the incident less severe and could potentially save more lives.
MIA doesn't have it.
Just like using obsolete tech and humans for ATC when more advance technologies are already available.
I hope this will be a wake up call for Jeff and rather going to space, he can try fix aviation.
Completely — there should have been an arrestor bed. I wonder how much the cost of this damage compares to the installation costs (which may have contributed their decision not to install one). Truly tragic.
How effective is an arrestor bed at 110kts?
Probably very little. I think the roadway arrestor beds in the US Western ranges are more effective because they are usually sloped upwards in addition.
EMAS is only effective up to a certain speed, and would have not been a huge factor here.
Eskimo, no, getting rid of all humans in the cockpit or control tower isn’t the answer. Let’s allow NTSB to properly investigate, and we’ll find out what really happened.
Miami Dade sheriff just confirmed 5 fatalities , unfortunately. And 5 others injured.
@ ovacikar -- Oh no! Do you have a link, because I can't seem to find that yet?
WPLG local 10 has live coverage on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr387XjUXCY
@Ben Confirmed by the mayor as well: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cmqlwrvwzxx5t
Horrible. The charred wing clipped vehicles. Just saw a video of approach. High and fast. Not even sure MLG touched ground.
Wonder if wind shear could have made final unstable.
You "have no idea what the pilots were thinking here"...
WOW
@ Richard -- Sorry, what part of that do you disagree with? Of course an investigation reveal why they decided to land the plane, but I don't think anyone would look at that landing attempt and think they made the right decision by not going around...
all flitg is delay at MIA
airport is down
Hope pilots are alright. Packages gonna be… late. More footage of the approach coming out: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/rkkOKkgyoM (seemed pretty unstable, high, hot, etc.) Also, looked like some mean thunderstorms behind it.
@ 1990_ -- Just added that video to the post, thanks. Yowzers!
Yikes. I’m saddened by the reports of fatalities and casualties. Also, the disruption to passengers is likely gonna take days to recover, especially with the holiday weekend. Be safe out there.
Footage captured near point of impact:
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/z3KCTyEMtf (if not helpful, feel free to remove)