Amazon said Sunday that it has suspended its partnership with 21 Air after one of the cargo carrier's planes loaded with Amazon packages careened off a Miami runway last week and killed five people.
The Boeing 767 came in fast on Sept. 6 and then barreled roughly 1,300 feet (396 meters) past the end of the runway and smashed into a van carrying workers at a plane cleaning company. All five people who died were in the van. Five others were hurt.
“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,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a prepared statement. “We’ll continue working to support the investigation and everyone affected.”
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The National Transportation Safety Board will examine everything that might have contributed to the crash to determine what caused it. That will include the actions of the pilots and air traffic controllers as well as the jet's maintenance history, the airline's practices and the stormy weather at the time of the crash.
The North Carolina carrier had flown packages for Amazon since 2024. The company also flies packages for DHL, which didn't immediately respond Monday morning to questions about whether it will continue to use 21 Air.
“We remain focused on supporting the families and loved ones who were impacted by this accident, as well as working closely with the NTSB and all our partners, like Amazon, as the investigation continues," 21 Air said in a statement. "We are confident in our safety policies, procedures and training.”
Flight information released by the NTSB on Sept. 9 revealed one of the pilots warned his counterpart they were going too fast as they approached for landing and after touchdown.
The plane was unsteady as it came in and didn't touch down until it was well beyond where it was supposed to on the runway, which limited the amount of space it had to stop. A tail wind may have helped propel the plane further.
The cockpit audio recordings also captured a series of automated warnings from the plane about the speed of descent and the approaching terrain. The full transcript of the cockpit conversation won’t be released until later in the investigation.
The 32-year-old Boeing was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines in foreign countries for more than two decades before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.
