An Amazon Air Boeing 767 cargo plane overran a runway when landing in Miami on September 6, killing five workers.
The plane, operated by 21 Air, was just completing its third flight of the day, departing from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It attempted its landing too fast, overshooting the runway before crashing into a cleaning van and a fence. The plane then plowed through concrete barriers before striking an SUV outside the boundaries of the airport.
All five reported deaths are workers in the cleaning van: Rolando Aleman Leon, Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, Julio C. Pineda, Carlos Acosta Fajardo, and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo.
Five more were injured in the crash, including the pilots, an occupant of the SUV, and two other workers in the cleaning van, who are all expected to survive.
The plane’s flight recorder, which was recovered following the crash, indicates that neither speed brakes nor thrust reversers were deployed during the crash, according to a US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation.
While one of the contributing factors to the crash was the lack of up-to-date runway safety buffers at the Miami International Airport, operator 21 Air has a history of safety violations, according to former employees.
Former President of the 21 Air Pilot’s Association Karl Seuring and other former 21 Air pilots have told the Department of Labor that management has hidden safety reports, pressured flight crew to work without enough rest, and allowed faulty planes to fly. Seuring was fired from 21 Air after becoming President of the Pilot’s Association.
Former 21 Air pilot Don Helmig resigned in 2021 on claims that management was ignoring safety issues, writing, “In my opinion, what they wished me to do is say nothing, but that is not how Safety is supposed to operate.” Former chief pilot Bruce Joseph testified during a Department of Labor hearing in 2023 that he had “personal knowledge of people being discouraged” from reporting safety concerns in the system.
The last fatal cargo plane accident in the US killed 15 and involved a UPS-operated plane in Louisville, Kentucky, in November 2025. According to the ongoing NTSB investigation, the left engine and pylon had separated from the wing during takeoff, lighting the engine on fire. The NTSB has found fatigue cracking in the spherical bearing race of the left pylon aft-mount assembly, but has not concluded why it wasn’t reported during inspection and why it caused the crash.
Boeing, which produced the planes in the Miami and Louisville crashes, paid a $3.1 million fine to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in January due to safety violations. The FAA found hundreds of production violations at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington, and subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems’ 737 factory in Wichita, Kansas, from September 2023 to February 2024.
According to legal precedent, the operator of the plane, 21 Air, would be held responsible for the crash, and not its owner, Amazon. The crash follows a series of workers killed recently at Amazon facilities in Ohio, Oregon, and Sacramento due to dangerously hot warehouses, tempo speedups, and increased labor intensity as Amazon cuts corners to squeeze as much profit as possible.
Image: The crash site of 21 Air Flight 7598, September 8, 2026. Credit: National Transportation Safety Board.
The Worker is an entirely volunteer-run revolutionary newspaper free from and radically antagonistic to corporate influence. We rely on the support of our readers to sustain our editorial line in service of the working class and the reconstitution of its party, the Communist Party. Make a one-time or recurring donation to our newspaper today:
Make a one-time donation
Make a monthly donation
Make a yearly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
