NTSB report: First officer warned Amazon cargo plane was too fast "multiple times" before deadly crash at MIA

The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report on the Sept. 6 crash of a cargo plane flown for Amazon that overran a runway at Miami International Airport and struck two vehicles, killing five people on the ground.

21 Air Flight 7598, a Boeing 767-33A freighter operating on behalf of Amazon.com Services LLC, landed on Runway 30 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, at about 1:53 p.m. and overran it. The plane hit an airport perimeter fence, crossed Northwest 67th Avenue and came to rest about 1,200 feet from the end of the pavement, the report said.

The plane first hit a Ford Econoline passenger van on an airport perimeter road. Five of the seven people in the van were killed, and the other two were seriously injured. The plane then struck a Toyota Corolla Cross SUV on Northwest 67th Avenue, and its only occupant was seriously injured.

The captain (pilot) and first officer (co-pilot), the only two people aboard, escaped with minor injuries.

The 12-page report lists facts and does not state a conclusion on why the crash occurred. It also notes that the day of the crash was the first time the captain and first officer had flown together.

The report noted excess speed during the plane's landing 

The report stated that the plane crossed the runway threshold at 177 knots (about 204 miles per hour) and touched down about 3,750 feet down the runway at 160 knots (about 184 miles per hour), which the report described as "long and fast." It also noted that neither the speed brakes nor the thrust reversers, which help the aircraft slow down after landing, were deployed by the pilots of the Prime Air plane. 

About 1 minute, 42 seconds before the crash, the report says, the first officer warned of excessive speed. More than 10 electronic warnings were captured on the flight recorder. The report noted that there was no consistent verbal response to the warnings. 

The plane's warning system, which alerts pilots to any issues in the aircraft, called out "sink rate" (the speed at which an aircraft loses altitude) and "too low terrain" several times. 

The captain was heard calling for a go-around only about 15 seconds before the end, after the plane had already touched down, according to the report. 

Weather conditions during the day were windy and stormy

Thunderstorms were reported at the airport. The 1:53 p.m. weather observation showed wind from 190 degrees at 17 knots, gusting to 26 knots. The tower's south local controller cleared the flight to land about 1:49 p.m., when the plane was about 12 nautical miles from the runway, but did not give wind information.

A Federal Aviation Administration order governing air traffic control required controllers to state both wind direction and speed when authorizing use of a runway where a tailwind component exists, the report said. About four minutes before clearing Flight 7598, the controller gave wind of 190 degrees at 19 knots (or about 22 mph), gusting to 22 knots (or about 25 mph), to another flight that asked. Flight 7598 was not on the frequency at the time.

The report said no engineered materials arresting system, a crushable-concrete overrun safety system, was installed at the end of Runway 30. The runway is 9,360 feet long and 150 feet wide, a length that includes a displaced threshold.

The accident was the first day that the captain and first officer flew together 

The captain was the pilot flying, and the first officer was the pilot monitoring. The captain told investigators he had about 7,267 total flight hours. He was hired by 21 Air in April 2026. The first officer reported about 2,800 total hours worked. He was hired in February 2025.

The two reported for duty at about 5:30 a.m. They flew Flight 7521 from Miami to San Juan earlier that day, with the first officer flying. It was the first time they had flown together. Flight 7598 left San Juan about 11:24 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive about 2:28 p.m. 

The captain had flown a Miami-Bogotá, Colombia, round trip Sept. 5, landing about 9:02 a.m., and was then off duty until the morning of the accident. The first officer last flew Sept. 3-4 and was off duty until the morning of the accident.

The plane sustained major damage from the crash

The plane was substantially damaged, with a post-crash fire on the right wing. The 767 was built in June 1994 as a passenger plane and converted to a freighter in June 2016. It had about 110,077 flight hours and 24,505 flight cycles. 21 Air is a cargo airline headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, with operations based in Miami. It operated 22 Boeing 757 and 767 airplanes at the time of the accident.

Investigators found the landing gear extended and locked, and brake wear pins on all eight main-gear wheels showed remaining service life. In the cockpit, the flap lever was in the 25-degree detent, and measurements of slat tracks and flap support rods were consistent with a 25-degree flap setting. The throttle levers were at idle, the fuel control switches were in cutoff, and the thrust reverser levers were in the first detent. The speed brake lever was in the stowed position. Both engine fire handles were up and rotated, and the auxiliary power unit fire handle was down.

The right engine was thermally damaged, partially separated from its wing pylon and resting on the ground. A large section of the right wing's upper skin was found in a parking lot about 158 feet northwest of the plane.

An attorney representing a crash survivor reacts to the findings

Pablo Rojas, an attorney with Podhurst Orseck, represents one of the survivors, 27-year-old Sebastian Perdomo Torres, who was in the van the plane struck. Lawsuits connected to the crash are taking shape.

Rojas said the report's information is valuable but not complete.

"I don't know for sure what the NTSB's conclusions are going to be, but I can tell you that this information does not answer all the questions we have about the broader airline operations. So we will be taking a thorough look at that independently what the NTSB finds about the specific immediate causes of the crash," Rojas said.

The report does not state a probable cause and says the information is preliminary and subject to change. The NTSB is continuing its investigation, and flight data and other engineering data will be used in an airplane performance study.