Amazon Cargo Plane Crashes at Miami International Airport

On Sunday, September 6, 2026, an Amazon cargo plane crashed at Miami International Airport, killing at least five people and injuring five others. The plane, operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North Carolina, was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico when it overran the runway around 2 p.m.

The investigation is ongoing, but experts say one of the factors being considered is whether the plane flew too far before touching down. Typically, the landing zone is within the first 3,000 feet of a runway, and if it was beyond that area, the plane should have aborted the landing and gone around for another attempt.

Air safety expert Steve Arroyo said that video posted online shows the Amazon plane floating above the runway for an extended period without flaring the nose upward to force the main landing gear onto the ground. This could be due to a tail wind, which would have added to the pilots' troubles if they had already given up a good chunk of the runway.

The Miami airport is not equipped with arresting systems that the FAA says have been installed at more than 120 airports nationwide to safely stop planes that go past the end of a runway. The Prime Air plane came to rest beside a roadway near two semitrucks, and despite the fire, the aircraft appeared to be largely intact.