In a tragic incident at Miami International Airport on Sunday, a Boeing 767‑300 cargo aircraft operated by Amazon Prime Air overran the runway, collided with parked vehicles, and burst into flames, killing five and injuring five.
Federal investigators disclosed that the cockpit voice recorder captured the flight crew’s repeated attempts to stop the aircraft as it approached the runway. One pilot warned the other of “excessive speed” multiple times, yet the cockpit’s loudspeaker failed to provide consistent verbal responses while the altitude alarm rang.
Data from the flight recorder shows the plane’s final approach speed was 158 knots (292 km/h), a figure at the upper end of the normal landing envelope for a 767‑300. Automated cockpit alerts such as “sink rate” and “too low terrain” also sounded in the critical minutes before the overrun.
Expert analysis suggests that delayed flap deployment—an essential safety feature that helps slow and steer a landing aircraft—may have compounded the problem, as the flaps were only lowered late in the approach.
After leaving the runway, the aircraft struck a white Ford van and a Toyota Corolla, then continued beyond the perimeter fence. Five people aboard the van, a plane‑cleaning crew, died in the collision. Victims were identified as Rolando Aleman Leon (55), Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo (53), Julio C Pineda (75), Carlos Acosta Fajardo (53) and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo (47).
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation into the crash, seeking to understand the exact sequence of events and the factors that led to the fatal overrun.
