Miami Crash Spotlights Amazon’s Cargo Carrier Model
A Boeing 767 cargo plane flying for Amazon overran a runway at Miami International Airport on September 6, killing five people and injuring five others, and the investigation is now examining both the safety record of the small operator that flew the jet and the retail giant’s practice of contracting out its air freight. The plane, operating as Prime Air Flight 7598 for 21 Air LLC, had arrived from San Juan, Puerto Rico, when it hurtled roughly 1,300 feet past the end of Runway 30, struck navigational equipment, and plowed into two vehicles on the ground before catching fire, according to NPR.
All five people killed were members of a cleaning crew riding in a van struck by the aircraft, according to CBS News. The two pilots survived, were hospitalized, and were later released.
A Landing That Went Wrong
The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary data, released in an investigative update, depicts an unstable approach in which the crew pressed ahead despite repeated warnings. Roughly a minute and a half before the recording ended, one pilot cautioned that the aircraft was too fast; the other pilot raised the same concern repeatedly but received no consistent verbal response. Cockpit alarms soon followed: “sink rate sink rate,” then “too low terrain” sounded four times.
Flight data showed the plane touched down at a groundspeed of 158 knots — about 182 mph — with its nose and right main gear, then briefly released the brakes and increased thrust as if attempting a go-around before abandoning the maneuver seconds later. There was no indication that speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed.
“In my 60 years of flying, I’ve never seen such a terrible performance from a crew,” Ross Aimer, chief executive of Aero Consulting Experts and a retired airline captain, told NPR. “It was a very, very unstable approach from the beginning, from the get go… These fellows should have gone around long before even getting close to that airport.”
The crash path stretched about 1,300 feet beyond the paved runway and involved a fuel leak that more than 60 rescue units and roughly 200 emergency personnel worked for hours to contain. Two of the airport’s four runways were closed, and at least 89 flights were canceled with more than 300 delayed the following day, according to USA TODAY.
A Spotlight on 21 Air
Attention has turned sharply toward 21 Air, the North Carolina-based cargo carrier that operated the flight. The company, which flies eight planes for Amazon and also serves DHL, is controlled by Houston Astros owner Jim Crane through an LLC. Former employees have alleged that managers suppressed safety reports, pushed crews to fly without proper rest, and put faulty planes into service.
Karl Seuring, a veteran pilot and former president of 21 Air’s pilot union, filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit alleging he was fired in 2022 for raising safety concerns after being told that conditions were “not going to change.” His appeal is pending before a Department of Labor tribunal, according to The New York Post. In a 2021 resignation email, the departing safety director Don Helmig accused company leaders of paying “lip service” to safety and said he was effectively expected to “say nothing.”
Former chief pilot Bruce Joseph testified that he had “personal knowledge of people being discouraged” from logging safety concerns, while a former CEO denied retaliation. Retired pilot Tony Bless said many former 21 Air aviators had long “been anticipating” such an accident. 21 Air said it is cooperating fully with investigators and that “our entire organization has focused on deploying the right training, protocols and procedures in all aspects of operational safety.”
Amazon’s Contracted Network
The crash has also renewed questions about Amazon’s reliance on outside air carriers and the experience levels of their crews. Amazon contracts with nine air carriers flying more than 100 planes total, according to the aviation analytics firm Cirium, and says its model is standard industry practice limited to carriers certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The crew of the Miami flight had relatively little time on the 767: the captain had been certified on the type for less than five months, and the first officer for less than 18 months, the NTSB said. Aimer noted that smaller cargo airlines often serve as a stepping stone for pilots seeking better jobs, attracting crews “that are not that experienced.”
“The main question would be,” Aimer told NPR, “why is it that a major company, a very rich company like Amazon Prime, is contracting their flying to several of what I would call fly by night operations like 21 Air?” Amazon disputed that characterization. “Nothing is more important to us than safety,” spokesperson Kelly Nantel said, adding that the company takes any safety allegation “with the utmost seriousness” and that the complaints against 21 Air predate their relationship.
It is the third major accident involving a 767 flying for Amazon: a 2019 Atlas Air crash into Trinity Bay near Houston that killed three people and was attributed to pilot error, a 2024 Cargojet runway overrun in Vancouver with no injuries, and now Miami. The incidents are unrelated in cause, and no determination has been made about what brought down Flight 7598.
What Investigators Will Examine
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the investigation will probe how Amazon and 21 Air work together. “We’re going to want to see what that relationship is. Who does what? What safety provisions might be in any sort of contracts or any sort of policies?” she said. The inquiry will also review the aircraft’s maintenance history, weather conditions, and the crew’s training and coordination in the cockpit.
Experts have questioned the crew’s decision-making and teamwork. “Where’s the coordination? Where’s the leadership here in terms of managing the flight deck?” former pilot and safety expert Steve Arroyo told reporters, per an AP report distributed by KNKX. Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo wondered whether the less experienced first officer was not “aggressive in challenging” the pilot at the controls.
The full cockpit transcript will not be released until later in the investigation, and a probable cause finding could take a year or more. For now, the crash has reopened a broader debate about how far responsibility extends when a company puts its brand on a flight but hires someone else to operate it.
What to watch for next: the NTSB’s full CVR transcript and the scope of its findings on the Amazon–21 Air relationship, which could shape scrutiny of the entire contract-carrier model that underpins the fast-growing air cargo industry.