Amazon Pauses 21 Air Operations After Miami Crash

In the video a police officer pulls a person free from one of the struck vehicles. The freighter, registered N1997A and flying as Flight 7598 for Amazon Air under operator 21 Air, had overrun runway 30 at Miami International Airport at 1:58 p.m. on September 6, 2026. It overshot by about 1,300 feet, broke through the perimeter fence, struck a van carrying seven people and then another vehicle, and came to rest in a field on fire.

Five people were killed: Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47. Five others were injured. The pilots, Joseph Carroll and Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, were later released from the hospital. Three more people remained hospitalized, two in critical condition and one stable.

The flight had left Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, earlier that day. Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board said the jet was on its third flight of the day. Investigators turned to the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data from the final approach.

About one minute and forty-two seconds before the crash, one of the pilots warned they were going too fast and continued commenting on excessive speed through the rest of the cockpit voice recording, which held more than two hours of audio. Roughly thirty seconds before impact, sounds similar to the aircraft touching down can be heard. About fifteen seconds after those sounds, a pilot called for a go-around, the standard abort of a landing in which the crew adds power, climbs away from the runway, and circles for another attempt. Five seconds later the plane veered off the runway.

Flight data showed an increase in thrust consistent with that attempt. Neither the speed brakes nor the thrust reversers were deployed. Speed brakes are the panels that rise from the upper surface of the wings to dump lift and add drag once the wheels are down; thrust reversers redirect engine exhaust forward so the engines help slow the airplane instead of push it. Investigators have not determined why.

On Sunday, September 14, 2026, Amazon announced it was pausing its work with the carrier. “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,” spokesperson Kelly Nantel said.

21 Air operates about seventeen planes, eight of them flying for Amazon after nearly two years of work together. The airline also carries shipments for DHL Express. In the days after the crash it said it was devastated by the accident involving one of its aircraft in Miami on September 6, offered condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and named supporting those affected and assisting the authorities among its immediate priorities. The company said it was cooperating fully with the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, local authorities, and partners including Amazon. “We are confident in our safety policies, procedures and training,” 21 Air said.

Karl Seuring, a pilot with more than thirty years of experience, had been describing safety problems at the carrier for years before the overrun. “Unfortunately, 21 Air has a long-established history of safety problems,” he said. When he brought safety concerns to a 21 Air manager, he was told, as he recounts it, “It’s not going to change.”

In April 2022 a mechanical problem caused a plane to accelerate continuously past speeds that could damage its wing flaps. Seuring said the episode left him “concerned for my own safety.” Afterward, he said of captain David Norgren’s reaction, there was “no debrief. No discussion. Assume it didn’t happen.”

That same spring a 21 Air flight from Alabama to Trinidad developed a pressurization problem and diverted to Puerto Rico. Seuring described captain Amir Anoshiravani’s “inability to take command of the operation,” with the first officers intervening to get the airplane safely on the ground. Anoshiravani told CBS News he had never come in contact with Seuring and disputed the account. Seuring filed a retaliatory-firing complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The complaint was rejected. In 2023 he appealed to a Department of Labor tribunal, where the case remains pending.

Attorney Michael Anello told a judge that another 21 Air pilot, Johnny Salmonson, was pressured onto flights that defied the required rest periods. “The management was pushing the pilots, and the result was he was retaliated against,” Anello said.

Documents cited by CBS News showed that pilots’ complaints about faulty planes put in the air, improper crew rest, and pilots unable to communicate safely in English were allegedly buried by managers at the carrier.

Former pilot Bruce Joseph testified in his own Labor Department tribunal in March 2024 that on numerous occasions people were discouraged from reporting safety issues. He said the then-director of safety warned him not to log a problem without first speaking to the company’s then-CEO, Mike Mendez. Only a couple of occasions were logged when Joseph pressed the matter, and doing so, he said, brought “the wrath of Mike.”

Nantel said Amazon will shift shipments previously handled by 21 Air to other carriers, including Sun Country Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Air Transport International, ABX Air, ASL Airlines and Cargojet, also listed as Quickjet among the direct air carrier partners that operate Amazon Air flights. Amazon Air is a virtual cargo airline: packages move on freighters flown by contracted partners, and the Prime Air logo remains on the aircraft. Its primary function is to transport Amazon packages from distant fulfillment centers that sit outside a region’s local ground linehaul network. Once those packages reach the buyer’s region, they may pass through a regional sortation center on the way to a local delivery station or post office.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigation into Flight 7598 continues.