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Amazon cargo jet pilots lacked wind data before Miami crash
21 Air flight struck airport equipment and 2 vehicles after its arrival from Puerto Rico, killing 5
An Amazon cargo plane after a crash at Miami International Airport in Miami on Sept. 7. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Key Takeaways:
- The NTSB said a controller cleared the Amazon cargo jet to land without providing required tailwind information before the Sept. 6 crash.
- The plane overran the Miami runway, killing five people on the ground after a pilot warned it was “too fast” and called a go-around.
- Amazon suspended operations with 21 Air after the crash, saying it had supported the investigation and reviewed surrounding circumstances.
An air traffic controller didn’t provide an Amazon.com Inc. cargo plane with wind information before it crashed at Miami International Airport in September, killing five people on the ground, according to accident investigators.
The controller who was responsible for arrivals and departures on the runway the Amazon jet was approaching gave the aircraft clearance to land but didn’t disclose that information, according to the preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board on Oct. 1. Federal Aviation Administration procedures require controllers to provide wind direction and velocity when a tailwind exists.
About four minutes before giving landing clearance to Flight 7598, operated by Amazon subcontractor 21 Air, the controller did supply information on the wind when asked by another flight, but the Amazon jet was not on the controller’s frequency.
The cargo plane overran the Miami airport’s runway after arriving from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 6. The Boeing Co. 767 jet continued past the paved runway surface, striking airport navigational equipment before plowing into two vehicles.
NTSB issues the preliminary report for its ongoing investigation of the Sept. 6 runway overrun of 21 Air flight 7598 at Miami International Airport. https://t.co/dOBCU1APXL pic.twitter.com/ahkFvnajiW
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) October 1, 2026
RELATED: Amazon cargo jet increased thrust before runway overrun
One of the pilots cautioned that the plane was “too fast” as it approached the runway, according to audio captured by the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder and previously released by the NTSB. The audio also recorded a pilot calling for a go-around — a procedure in which a plane aborts a landing attempt and climbs back into the sky — after registering a sound similar to the aircraft touching down.
In the preliminary report, the NTSB said the captain, who was flying the aircraft, had about 7,267 total hours of flight experience, of which 150 hours were in the accident airplane make and model. The first officer, the pilot monitoring, had about 2,800 total hours.
It’s unclear from the voice recorder information released by the agency which individual was speaking at different points in the transcript.
RELATED: Amazon Air crash puts contractor model in focus again
Amazon suspended its work with 21 Air following the crash. “After the tragic incident last weekend, we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances, and we’ve decided to pause our operations with 21 Air,” the company said last month.
Amazon ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America, No. 15 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest private carriers and No. 1 on the TT Top 50 list of the largest global freight companies.
