Five dead after Amazon cargo jet leaves runway at Miami Airport

The five people who died when an Amazon cargo jet ran off the runway at Miami International Airport were inside a van used to transport aircraft cleaning crews, authorities said on Tuesday (8).

The Boeing 767-300 exceeded the runway limit during landing on Sunday. He collided with the van inside the airport area, went through a fence and crashed into an SUV on a city street.

Five other people were injured. The pilot and co-pilot have been released from the hospital, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said Tuesday. Two people remain in critical condition, while a third is in stable condition, she said.

A system to stop jets that overshoot the runway at high speeds will likely be a focus of the investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the accident. One of the focuses will be the absence of a system to slow down and stop jets that overtake the runway at high speed at the ends of the runways.

Miami is not among the 120 US airports that have the lightweight, deformable material system that, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has already saved around 500 lives.

Even without a containment system for runway departures, the Miami airport appears to be in compliance with federal regulations as it has a 1,000-foot (305-meter) safety zone at the end of its runways, experts said.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said her agency's goal is to prevent tragedies, but that lane departures continue to occur even after the board has suggested installing such systems in the past.

"Our recommendations need to be implemented, or we will be here again," she said at a news conference on Monday.

Investigators recovered the flight data recorder, and the information is being analyzed. Interviews with the pilot, co-pilot, air traffic controllers and others are being scheduled, Homendy said.

All of the fatal victims were in a cleaning service van.

Amazon said in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation and expressed its deepest condolences to the victims and their families.

The five people who died were in a van belonging to Professional Ocean Service Corp., an aircraft cleaning company. The company stated that it would not comment on the accident out of respect for the families who lost loved ones. "Our employees are so much more than the people who work alongside us every day; they are family and are deeply loved. Our hearts and prayers are with every employee and every family whose lives have been changed forever," the company said in a statement Tuesday.

The Miami-Dade sheriff identified the fatal victims as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Narajo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.

The jet appeared to hover over the runway for a long time.

The Amazon jet was landing after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico as thunderstorms formed around Miami airport.

The NTSB said the plane overshot the end of the runway by about 1,300 feet (396 meters).

Homendy described the scene as one of "utter devastation", with vehicle wreckage, airbags, destroyed navigation equipment and parts of fences scattered along the plane's path. She said she needed to be careful as there was still jet fuel everywhere 24 hours after the crash.

Strong winds, exceeding 25 knots, were recorded on Saturday afternoon. Experts who analyzed video of the landing said a strong tailwind appeared to have driven the plane onto the runway, past the point where it should have touched down. The aircraft remained in the air without raising its nose to force the wheels into contact with the ground.

It is not immediately clear why the pilot did not abort the landing and go in to try again.

Air traffic controllers also did not alter the runway approach to allow the plane to land into the wind (headwind). Airports routinely change the landing direction of aircraft when winds change.

The jet started out as a passenger aircraft before being converted to cargo.

The flight was operated by 21 Air, a North Carolina-based cargo carrier. The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several foreign airlines for more than two decades before being converted into a freighter in 2015, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24. Two of Miami Airport's four runways remained closed Tuesday, and Homendy said they will not reopen until NTSB investigators gather all necessary information from the crash site.

More than 225 flights were canceled on Sunday and Monday, and hundreds of others were delayed, authorities said.

Homendy said the NTSB will attempt to clear the runway for the airport as quickly as possible after investigators document the location.