Federal investigators have recovered the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that overran the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday, leaving five people dead and five seriously injured.
Despite retrieving the critical "black boxes," the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) emphasized that victim recovery remains the primary focus.
The Boeing 767-300, operated by 21 Air, overshot the runway shortly before 2:00 PM local time while arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on its third flight of the day.
Carrying two crew members, the aircraft struck navigational equipment before breaking through a perimeter fence.
It collided with a white Ford van belonging to a contract cleaning company—carrying seven people—and a Toyota Corolla carrying three passengers, coming to rest roughly 1,300 feet (394 meters) past the runway threshold.
Speaking at a news conference, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy stated that investigators are still in the early "fact-finding stage" and that it is too soon to draw conclusions about the cause.
Full support for the ongoing government inquiry has been pledged by Amazon, 21 Air, and Boeing.
This tragic event comes amidst heightened attention to aviation safety, following a 2019 Amazon Prime Air crash in Texas that killed three people and a November UPS cargo crash in Kentucky that claimed 15 lives.
Miami International Airport, the third-busiest cargo hub in the United States, continues to manage operations as the investigation unfolds.
