An Amazon cargo plane sits at Miami International Airport after overrunning a runway Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, in Miami. David Santiago/AP hide caption toggle caption David Santiago/AP MIAMI — Flight data suggests that an Amazon cargo plane attempted to abort an unstable landing at Miami International Airport before crashing into a pickup truck and killing five people inside, according to information investigators released Tuesday. National Transportation Safety Board investigators will interview the pilot and co-pilot Wednesday as they try to determine why the plane overran the runway while landing Sunday. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at an afternoon news conference that they are reviewing flight data and cockpit recordings to determine what happened in the seconds before the plane slammed into the van on airport property, crashed through a fence and then crashed into a van on a city street. Homendy said investigators want to talk to the pilots before releasing anything from the cockpit voice recorder about why they appeared to briefly attempt a go-around to retry the landing approach before abandoning it and attempting to stop the plane. He said the data showed that the thrust reversers were never used to help stop the plane. The five people who died were inside a van used to transport equipment that cleans airplanes, authorities said. Five other people were injured. The pilot and co-pilot have been released from the hospital, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said Tuesday. Two people remain in critical condition, while a third is in stable condition, he said. Both the mangled white van, with the entire front end crushed, and the pickup truck (so badly damaged it was almost unrecognizable) remained at the crash site Tuesday, along with the plane, which was upside down with a large soot mark near the P in “Prime Air.” The expert says the pilots may have hesitated. The Amazon plane was landing after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico as storms brewed around the Miami airport. The NTSB said the plane passed approximately 1,300 feet (396 meters) past the end of the runway. Former FAA official Mike O’Donnell said Tuesday that the fact that the plane landed on its nose and right landing gear first demonstrates that it was an unstable landing. He said the pilot may have been trying to turn around. Officials stand near a destroyed wing and engine as they inspect an Amazon cargo plane two days after it overshot the runway at Miami International Airport, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Miami. Rebecca Blackwell/AP hide caption toggle caption Rebecca Blackwell/AP “An evasion probably should have been executed before that. And it seems like they hesitated,” O’Donnell said. O’Donnell said that when the crew tried to abort the landing, it may have been too late if there wasn’t enough runway left. But interviews investigators scheduled with the pilots for Wednesday will reveal more about what they were thinking at the time. Aviation attorney Mary Schiavo, who was once the Department of Transportation’s inspector general, said, “It almost seems like there was a disagreement among the pilots about what to do.” Weather could also have been a factor because experts said it appeared that a strong tailwind propelled the plane well past the point where it was supposed to land. Investigators will want to know what the pilots were told about the weather and why air traffic controllers had not reversed the approach to the runway to allow the plane to land into a headwind. All of the murdered people were in a cleaning service van. Amazon said in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation and that the company sends its deepest condolences to the victims and their families. The five people who died were in a van owned by Professional Ocean Service Corp., a company that cleans airplanes. The company said it would not comment on the accident out of respect for the families who lost loved ones. “Our employees are much more than the people who work alongside us every day, they are family and they are deeply loved. Our hearts and prayers go out to every employee and every family whose lives have been changed forever,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. An NTSB investigator works near a damaged van at the site where an Amazon cargo plane skidded off the runway two days earlier while landing at Miami International Airport, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Miami. Rebecca Blackwell/AP hide caption toggle caption Rebecca Blackwell/AP The Miami-Dade sheriff identified the deceased as Rolando Alemán León, 55; Yoel Rodríguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75 years old; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47 years old. Homendy said the accident raises safety concerns for workers at airports. “This is certainly very tragic. You wouldn’t think that traveling in a van to clean an airplane this could happen,” he said. Miami does not have a special system to stop runaway planes. Homendy has said investigators will look into whether the lack of a special system to brake and stop high-speed planes at the end of Miami’s runways could have been a factor in the crash. But other experts say the airport met FAA requirements to provide a clear buffer space of at least 1,000 feet (305 meters) beyond the end of the runways. Miami is not one of more than 120 U.S. airports with lightweight, crushable material that the Federal Aviation Administration says has saved about 500 lives. Homendy said his agency’s goal is to prevent tragedies, but thousands of slope excursions have continued to take place. The NTSB’s final report will identify the cause and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again, but likely won’t be complete for a year or more. The plane started out as a passenger plane before being converted to a cargo plane. The flight had been operated by 21 Air, a North Carolina-based cargo airline. The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines in foreign countries for more than two decades before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight tracking site Flightradar24. Miami Airport regained use of a third runway Tuesday afternoon after the NTSB cleared it, but investigators are still documenting evidence around the wreckage at the end of the runway where the plane landed. More than 225 flights were canceled on Sunday and Monday and hundreds more were delayed, officials said. But that should improve now that the airport can use three of its four runways. Homendy said the NTSB will try to return the runway to the airport as quickly as possible after investigators document the scene.
