All five victims of the Amazon cargo plane accident at Miami International Airport in Florida on September 7 were confirmed to be occupants of ground vehicles, not passengers on the aircraft.
According to CNN on September 8, the Miami-Dade County Sheriff's Office reported that the five individuals who died were employees of a cleaning company riding in a van on an airport service road at the time of the collision.
The deceased were affiliated with a company contracted by the airline for cleaning services. Initially, it was unclear whether the victims were passengers on the aircraft or occupants of the vehicles involved in the crash.
CNN reported that the Boeing 767-300 cargo plane operated by Amazon Air moved to the end of the runway before breaking through a grassy area and a fence, crashing onto the airport service road. During this process, the aircraft struck a Ford van carrying cleaning staff and a Toyota SUV located outside the airport's perimeter. The cargo plane came to a stop approximately 396 meters from the runway, engulfed in flames.
More than 60 fire rescue vehicles and about 200 firefighters responded to the scene. A total of five injuries were reported. Among them, two pilots of the cargo plane sustained minor injuries and were treated and released. The other three individuals were in the ground vehicles, with two reported in critical condition and one in stable condition.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, and is analyzing them while considering factors such as pilot experience and training, air traffic control, and weather conditions.
Notably, CNN reported that the aircraft approached at a higher altitude than the normal landing path and was traveling at approximately 209 km/h when it reached the end of the runway. There are also suggestions that a sudden change in wind direction may have created a tailwind during the landing process.
The NTSB emphasized that it should not rush to conclusions about the cause of the accident and stated that a determination should be made only after obtaining actual flight data.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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