Amazon suspends cargo flights with 21 Air after fatal Miami runway crash

Contract suspension following fatal crash

Amazon announced on Sept. 13 that it suspended cargo operations with 21 Air following a fatal runway overrun at Miami International Airport. The incident occurred early in the afternoon on Sept. 6 when Flight 7598, an Amazon Prime Air flight arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, touched down and failed to stop. The aircraft traveled approximately 396 meters (1,300 feet) beyond the end of the runway, crossed an airport perimeter roadway, and struck parked vehicles on the ground before coming to rest in an adjacent field and catching fire.

Five workers inside an airport cleaning company van, aged between 47 and 75, were killed in the collision. Five other individuals sustained injuries, with two people suffering severe harm. Amazon maintains a logistics fleet of more than 100 owned and leased cargo aircraft, contracting third-party carriers to fly routes under its Prime Air banner. North Carolina-based 21 Air had operated flights under contract for Amazon since 2024. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel confirmed the decision to halt the partnership in an official statement.

After the tragic incident last weekend, we've spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances, and we've decided to pause our operations with 21 Air, the operator of Flight 7598.

NTSB preliminary findings on landing sequence

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) opened an investigation covering 21 Air flight operations, maintenance logs, airport weather conditions, and the ownership records of the aircraft. Investigators recovered both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder from the wreckage. In an interim report issued on Sept. 9, the safety board disclosed preliminary information showing that one pilot warned the other that the aircraft was traveling too fast roughly one minute before touchdown and repeated the warning after ground contact. Automated cockpit warnings also alerted the crew about an excessive rate of descent and terrain proximity.

Telemetry from the flight data recorder showed that the nose gear and right main landing gear touched down 30 seconds before recording ended, while the left main landing gear contacted the runway 19 seconds before the end. Seconds later, the flight crew released the wheel brakes and increased engine thrust, a sequence matching an attempt to abort the landing and initiate a go-around maneuver. The agency stated that the cause of the crash remains under investigation, with a full cockpit transcript scheduled for release at a later stage.

Carrier background and regulatory scrutiny

The aircraft was a 32-year-old Boeing 767-300 freighter. According to Flightradar24 tracking data, the plane flew as a passenger airliner for multiple international carriers from 1994 until its conversion into a dedicated cargo freighter in 2015. 21 Air is held by Avia Acquisitions, an entity owned by logistics businessman James Crane, who is also the owner of the Houston Astros baseball team.

In the days following the crash, reporting by NPR and CBS identified documents concerning 21 Air's adherence to aviation safety protocols. Multiple former employees stated that carrier management had actively discouraged staff from reporting maintenance and safety defects. In its public response, 21 Air stated that it is cooperating fully with the NTSB and corporate partners while assisting victim families, adding that it remains confident in its safety guidelines, operational procedures, and pilot training standards.