At Miami International Airport in the United States, an Amazon cargo plane landed late on the runway and then ran past the runway end, which lacked an overrun arresting system, plowing into vehicles.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said at a briefing on the 7th that the cargo plane overran Runway 30 at Miami International Airport in Florida the day before and continued about 400 meters. The cargo plane struck several vehicles and stopped just in front of an area where Tesla robotaxis were parked.
The first vehicle the cargo plane hit was a van owned by a contractor that had a cleaning services contract with the airline. Of the seven people in the vehicle, five died and two were in critical condition.
After hitting the van, the cargo plane broke through the airport perimeter fence and also collided with a passenger car traveling on a four-lane road.
An abnormally late landing is cited as the most likely cause. The aircraft continued level flight without pitching up to let the main gear touch down first. The touchdown point was well past the usual landing zone.
CNN, citing flight-tracking data, reported that the cargo plane was still traveling at 209 kph when it left the runway.
The cargo plane approached the runway through clouds and thunderstorms. A sudden wind shift just before landing that produced a tailwind is also cited as a factor in the late landing. CNN reported that video posted on social media (SNS) showed the left main wheel touching down and then bouncing back up.
The lack of an engineered materials arresting system (EMAS) at Miami International Airport was also cited as a factor that worsened the damage. EMAS is a braking system in which a concrete-like surface crushes under an aircraft's weight, grabbing the wheels to stop the aircraft.
Two pilots were aboard the cargo plane. Both were rescued immediately after the crash, but their current conditions were not precisely known.
Recently in the United States, fatal aviation accidents have occurred in succession. On Mar. 3, at LaGuardia Airport in New York, an aircraft and a fire truck collided, killing two pilots.
On Jan. 2025, near the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., a passenger jet and a U.S. military helicopter collided, killing 67 people, and in Nov. 2025, a UPS cargo plane crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, killing 15.