A cargo plane skidded off the runway during landing at Miami International Airport, causing at least five deaths and five injuries. The aircraft was a Boeing 767-300, operated by 21 Air on behalf of Amazon, which left from Luis Muñoz Marín airport in San Juan (Puerto Rico): only the crew was on board, but the cargo ran off the runway and hit several vehicles on the ground.
The accident occurred on one of the busiest weekends of the year, with millions of people traveling for Labor Day (which is celebrated every year on the first Monday in September): the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) estimated that 2.3 million people would have passed through the USA on Sunday alone.
The Miami airport, among other things, is the busiest in the United States in terms of international cargo traffic and, according to the New York Times, generates 212 billion dollars in revenue per year: approximately 60% of all international visitors arriving in Florida pass through this airport.
The US federal transport safety agency, the NTSB, will investigate the causes of the accident.
The dynamics of the plane crash
The aircraft touched down just before 2.00 pm (local time, 8.00 pm in Italy) yesterday, Sunday 6 September: during landing, instead of stopping within the limits of the runway, it overtook the so-called diagonal runway of the airport, continuing its run until stopping at the north-western end of the airport, in an area close to the car park that serves an Amazon warehouse and other activities.
A graphic reconstruction published by the BBC shows how the plane arrived diagonally on the runway and continued well beyond its end, far from the intended landing zone. Data from tracking site FlightRadar24 indicates that, when it left the usable part of the runway, the plane was still traveling at 112 knots (about 207 km/h), an extremely high speed for a craft that should have been almost stationary at that point. At the time of the accident, there were light thunderstorms and gusty winds over Miami.
As it went off the runway, the cargo plane hit several vehicles: some people were trapped under the cars and had to be extracted by rescuers. Three of the five injured are in critical condition and have been transported to a trauma center. The Miami airport, in fact, is surrounded by warehouses, business centers and residential neighborhoods.
The impact also triggered a fire: the emergency vehicles, reported the mayor of Miami-Dade County Daniella Levine Cava, arrived on site within a few moments and, overall, over 200 firefighters intervened, who found the plane already engulfed in intense flames and smoke. The flames were extinguished, but an active fuel leak remained at the scene.
According to IATA, runway exits (in English runway excursion(i.e. when an aircraft overshoots or goes off the runway during take-off or landing) are the most reported type of air accident every year and can depend on many causes, from unstable approaches to runway conditions and crosswinds.
For this specific case, however, the authorities have clarified that it is too early to establish a cause: the investigations are entrusted to the NTSB, which is expected to organize a press conference today, Monday 7 September.
The characteristics of the Boeing 767-300 freighter and the previous one from 1997
According to the information available, we know that the aircraft involved was a Boeing 767-300 cargo version, built in 1994 as a passenger plane and subsequently converted into a cargo plane, according to Cirium data reported by the New York Times.
This is a model that Boeing places in the category of widebody freighter medium-sized, i.e. aircraft with a double aisle but small dimensions compared to giants such as the 777. According to Boeing’s technical data sheets, the 767-300 has a maximum payload of 57 tons, a maximum take-off weight of approximately 187 tons (186,880 kg) and a range of 3,300 nautical miles (6,110 km).
The aircraft is 54.9 meters long, has a wingspan of 47.6 meters, is 15.8 meters high and is powered by GE Aerospace CF6 engines. The company that physically operated the flight, 21 Air, describes the model as capable of carrying 55 tons and having “excellent fuel efficiency”.
Boeing presents the 767-300 as the most cost-efficient mid-size freighter and as the ideal vehicle for growth in e-commerce and express freight, exactly the type of activity at the heart of Amazon’s business. The Amazon Air network, explains the New York Times, has more than 250 flights a day and is a key piece of the company’s logistics, which however does not manage these flights directly, but outsources them to third-party operators.
It is not the first time that a cargo plane is the protagonist of an event of this type at the Miami airport. In August 1997, in fact, another accident also caused five victims: in that case, it was a Fine Air DC-8 which, immediately after take-off, abruptly climbed upwards, stalled and crashed into an open field. The aircraft caught fire, skidded across a six-lane highway and ended up in a parking lot. Investigations by the NTSB (the same federal body that will also deal with Sunday’s accident) established that the plane’s cargo had been stowed incorrectly.
