NTSB releases first report into deadly Amazon plane crash at Miami airport

David Goodhue and Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald on Oct 1, 2026

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MIAMI — Federal investigators released their first report into what went wrong when 21 Air Flight 7598 overshot the runway at Miami International Airport last month, killing five people in a work van and seriously injuring five others.

The report released Thursday afternoon shows the plane was coming in much faster than investigators previously calculated and was well past the threshold of the runway before it came to a stop.

The 767-33A was carrying cargo on contract for Amazon Prime when it came high and fast over the Runway 30 on Sunday, Sept. 6, traveling about 203 mph just seconds before it came to a stop by crashing into a van carrying an airport cleaning crew and an SUV.

The plane was about 105 feet above the runway surface when it passed the threshold where it should have touched down, the report states. It was roughly 3,750 feet past that point when its landing gear finally made contact with the ground.

The plane then continued north down the runway at around 130 mph as it hit lighting systems before leaving the paved surface onto the grass at about 100 mph, according to the report.

The 200,000-pound jet then went another 1,200 feet at around 74 mph before crossing Northwest 67th Avenue, crashing through a fence and hitting the Ford Econoline van with seven people inside and a Toyota Corolla Cross SUV with one person inside, NTSB investigators say.

Flight-recorder data showed the pilots tried in the last seconds to lift off again to attempt to abort the landing, but there was not enough runway left. There was no indication that speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed, according to the flight recorder.

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office identified five people who died among the seven inside the Ford van: Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Narajo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierk Reyes Quevedo, 47.

The driver of the Toyota, Eugenio Corredor, 79, was critically injured.

“It’s an incredibly tragic incident that has occurred,” Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz told reporters at her agency’s Doral headquarters. “One leaves their house to go to work, to visit family, to do what we normally do, without thinking that is even a possibility.”

The plane left from San Juan, Puerto Rico, at 11:24 p.m. and wasn’t scheduled to arrive at MIA until 2:28 p.m., the report states.

History of safety complaints

Former pilots of 21 Air, the air-cargo company operating the Amazon Prime plane that fatal Sunday, had previously gone on record shining light on a host of safety complaints well before the crash.

Pilot Karl Seuring accused the North Carolina-based operator of not giving pilots enough time off between flights, violating take-off speed protocols and other risks that endangered the public and flight crews, according to March 2024 sworn statements in an ongoing Department of Labor dispute with his former employer.

Don Helmig, a retired airline and military pilot who flew for 21 Air, quit his job after he believed management ignored significant safety issues, a resignation email obtained by the Miami Herald read.

“After three months, everywhere I looked, there are issues,” Helmig wrote in a June 12, 2021, resignation email to 21 Air’s majority owner, Jim Crane, who also owns the Houston Astros baseball team. “In my opinion, what they wished me to do is say nothing, but that is not how Safety is supposed to operate, to ‘pay lip service to (Safety Management Systems)’ and do nothing.”

Amazon suspended ties with 21 Air, the operator of the fatal Flight 7598, following the fatal crash at MIA.

“After the tragic incident last weekend, we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a Sept. 13 statement.

Mountain of lawsuits

In the wake of the fatal crash, several family members of the deceased and a survivor from the wreckage have all filed separate lawsuits against numerous companies they say are liable, including 21 Air and Amazon, as well as the pilots.

The children of Aleman, Duviel and Aylen, are suing multiple companies, including 21 Air, Amazon and the pilots, for their involvement in the death of their father. Duviel was supposed to be in the van with his father but because of appendicitis was not, inadvertently saving his life.

Roosevelt Sebastian Perdomo Torres was one of the seven in van with Aleman, and only one of two who survived the impact form the Boeing 767. His lawyers filed a similar lawsuit against Air 21, Amazon and the pilots.

In the complaint, his attorneys wrote, “There was nowhere for him to go and no time to escape.” Perdomo Torres was ejected from the van and thrown to the ground, breaking his leg, ankle and hand.

Two other lawsuits have been filed in connection with the crash. The widow of the driver of the van, Rodriguez Naranjo, filed a complaint against the same parties. The sons of Pineda, another cleaning-crew member in the van, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit as well.

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