Miami Cargo Crash Raises Questions About Amazon Air

A Boeing 767 cargo jet flying for Amazon overran a runway at Miami International Airport on September 6, 2026, crossing a perimeter fence and a public road before striking two ground vehicles and catching fire. Five people were killed — all members of a cleaning crew riding in a van — and five others were injured, including the two pilots, who survived.

The crash has thrust the aircraft’s operator, a little-known North Carolina cargo carrier called 21 Air, and its relationship with Amazon into the center of a federal investigation, raising questions about the safety culture of the airline and the retail giant’s practice of contracting out its air cargo operations rather than running its own fleet.

A Landing That Went Wrong Early

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the aircraft — 21 Air Flight 7598, operating as Prime Air — touched down on Runway 30 at a groundspeed of 158 knots, with the nose and right main gear making contact first. Brakes were applied at 146 knots, and the left main gear touched down at 134 knots.

The flight data recorder showed the plane was still moving at roughly 129 miles per hour as it left the usable runway, tracking data indicated. It then hurtled about 1,300 feet past the end of the runway, according to AeroTime.

Cockpit recordings captured a cascade of automated warnings in the final seconds, including repeated “sink rate” and “too low terrain” alerts. One pilot cautioned the other that the plane was too fast, according to the NTSB. A pilot called for a go-around only after touchdown, but the recorded data showed no indication that speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed.

“It was a very, very unstable approach from the beginning, from the get go,” Ross Aimer, the CEO of Aero Consulting Experts and a retired airline captain, told NPR. “These fellows should have gone around long before even getting close to that airport.”

A Little-Known Operator

21 Air is a Greensboro, North Carolina-based all-cargo airline that operates eight planes for Amazon, including the 767 involved in the crash. It also flies for DHL. According to CBS News, the company is controlled by Houston Astros owner Jim Crane through an LLC, a structure confirmed in a memo submitted to the Department of Transportation and reported by the New York Post.

The flight crew had relatively little experience on the aircraft type. The captain had been certified on the Boeing 767 for less than five months, and the first officer for less than 18 months, the NTSB said.

A History of Safety Complaints

Former 21 Air employees raised concerns about the airline’s safety culture long before the Miami crash. Karl Seuring, a veteran pilot and former president of the company’s pilot union, said he was fired in 2022 after raising safety concerns — allegations at the center of a federal whistleblower lawsuit still pending before a Department of Labor tribunal.

“We anticipated and we feared it. And we knew the day would come, and there wasn’t anything we could do,” Seuring told NPR.

Don Helmig, the company’s departing safety director, wrote in a 2021 email to its owner that he saw problems “everywhere I looked” and accused leaders of paying “lip service” to safety procedures “then doing exactly nothing.” Bruce Joseph, a former 21 Air chief pilot, testified that he had “personal knowledge of people being discouraged” from logging safety concerns.

The company’s CEO at the time denied discouraging safety reporting and said 21 Air follows “all the rules.” The airline has said it is cooperating fully with investigators and that its “entire organization has focused on deploying the right training, protocols and procedures in all aspects of operational safety.”

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the retailer takes all safety allegations seriously but noted that the concerns raised by former employees “pre-date our relationship with the company and the current leadership team at 21 Air.”

Scrutiny of Amazon’s Contracting Model

Amazon holds no air operator certificate for the flights in its network. Instead, it contracts with nine different cargo carriers operating more than 100 planes, including major names such as Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air and Cargojet, alongside lesser-known operators like 21 Air.

The Miami crash is the third major accident involving a Boeing 767 flying for Amazon. In 2019, an Atlas Air flight crashed into Trinity Bay while approaching Houston, killing three people; the NTSB found the probable cause was pilot error. In 2024, a Cargojet 767 flying for Amazon overran a runway in Vancouver, Canada, after the crew reported flap problems; no one was injured.

“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?” Aimer asked.

Amazon disputes that characterization, saying its carrier model is standard industry practice and that its partners are FAA-certified.

What Happens Next

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy has said investigators want to understand exactly how Amazon and 21 Air divide responsibility for safety, signaling that the contract relationship itself could become part of the inquiry. The agency has not yet determined a probable cause.

A separate question has also surfaced: Miami International Airport is not equipped with an Engineered Material Arresting System, a bed of crushable material designed to stop aircraft that overrun a runway. The FAA does not require the system when an airport has a 1,000-foot runway safety area, as is the case in Miami. As NPR reported, roughly 70 U.S. airports do have the systems.

For now, the investigation continues, and with it, scrutiny of the sprawling, largely invisible network that moves Amazon packages through the sky.