Amazon cargo plane overruns Miami runway and catches fire, five killed

Five people were killed when an Amazon Prime Air cargo aircraft overran a runway while landing at Miami International Airport in Florida and crashed into vehicles on the ground, The Times of Israel reported, citing local officials speaking at a news conference. The report said Prime Air Flight 7598 ran off the airport's diagonal runway shortly before 2 p.m. local time, or 1800 GMT, and hit multiple vehicles. Five more people were injured, three of them critically, according to the same account.

The aircraft caught fire after leaving the paved surface. Ynet reported that footage from the scene showed thick smoke rising from the runway area after the aircraft went up in flames, and said the circumstances of the accident were still being examined. Ynet also cited CNN as saying the pilots had not declared an emergency before the landing. Amazon said in a statement quoted by Ynet that the event unfolded quickly. The Israeli news outlet News.co.il reported that ground traffic at the airport was halted after the aircraft slid off the runway, burned and lost a wing.

What the aircraft was

The Jerusalem Post described the aircraft as an Amazon-owned Boeing 767 freighter that overshot the runway at Miami International Airport. The Times of Israel identified the operation as an Amazon Prime Air cargo flight and noted that the cargo airline did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment. Amazon Prime Air is the retail company's air freight network, which moves parcels between its logistics hubs in aircraft flown on its behalf by contracted carriers. Cargo conversions of the Boeing 767, a wide-body twin-engine jet originally built for passenger service, are a common type in that role.

Where this happened

Miami International Airport sits on the eastern edge of Florida in the southern United States and is one of the busiest freight gateways in the country, handling a large share of air cargo moving between North America and Latin America. It is operated by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, the county agency that runs the airport system for Miami-Dade County. The Times of Israel reported that Amazon and the aviation department had earlier confirmed an incident as the aircraft was attempting to land.

The airport shut down

All runways and taxiways at the airport were closed as of 3 p.m. local time, according to officials cited by The Times of Israel. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on the social platform X that travellers should "expect significant delays and potential cancellations." The Israeli broadcaster N12 reported the airport closure to flights, attributing that information to Duffy, and separately reported that the cargo aircraft that crashed belonged to Amazon and that five people had been killed.

The transportation secretary heads the US Department of Transportation, the federal body whose agencies include the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates civil aviation and controls American airspace. A closure of all movement areas at an airport of Miami's size ripples quickly through domestic and international schedules, because aircraft and crews positioned there cannot depart and inbound flights must divert.

Deaths on the ground

The reports agree that the aircraft struck vehicles after leaving the runway, and that the death toll stands at five. None of the material reviewed for this report breaks down how many of those killed were crew members aboard the aircraft and how many were people on the ground. The same applies to the injured: The Times of Israel reported five injured with three in critical condition, without stating where they were when the aircraft came to rest.

What is not yet known

The cause of the overrun has not been established in any of the reports. Ynet said the circumstances were still under examination, and the detail attributed to CNN, that no emergency was declared by the crew before landing, is a single-source claim that the other reports reviewed here do not carry.

The reports do not say where the flight originated, what it was carrying, how many people were aboard, or who was operating the aircraft for Amazon. They do not name any of those killed or injured. They do not say when the airport expected to reopen runways, or which federal agency had taken charge of the investigation. Weather conditions at the time of the landing are not described. The Jerusalem Post identified the aircraft type as a Boeing 767 while The Times of Israel did not specify a type, and the material does not indicate whether the aircraft was destroyed or how far beyond the runway end it travelled before stopping.