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Amazon Cargo Plane Crashes at Miami Airport

11 sources · updated 2026-09-11
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1 left · 1 center · 0 right

What happened

On Sunday around 2 p.m. local time, Amazon Prime Air Flight 7598, a Boeing 767 cargo jet operated by 21 Air LLC and arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, overran a runway at Miami International Airport, traveled about 1,300 feet beyond the paved surface, broke through a perimeter fence, and struck vehicles including a Ford Econoline van. Five aircraft-cleaning workers in the van were killed—Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47—and additional people were injured; the two pilots, Captain Joseph Carroll, 55, and First Officer Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37, were treated and released. National Transportation Safety Board investigators recovered the flight data and cockpit voice recorders and said preliminary data showed the landing gear touched down, throttles then increased to values consistent with go-around thrust, wheel brakes were applied, and there was no indication that speed brakes or thrust reversers deployed. The aircraft, on its third flight of the day, was carrying about 32,000 pounds of cargo consisting mainly of contact lenses and no hazardous materials; the NTSB planned to interview the pilots before publicly releasing a cockpit-voice-recorder readout.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 11 articles

9 of 10 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.

What these terms mean and how they're counted
On the record · names a source 9 of 10
On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, Rosie Cordero-Stutz, Chihoon Shin, Miami-Dade County Sheriff's Office and investigators
Primary evidence · cites a document or data 4 of 10
Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: flight data recorder, official statement, flight data, NTSB investigation update
Credits another outlet 0 of 10
The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
Unnamed sources 2 of 10
The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
How it developed
When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 9, 01:53 UTC by The Guardian, naming its source. First document in the first report, from The Guardian (flight data recorder).
Not counted 1
Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out

Unpacked

Right-leaning coverage omitted the NTSB finding that the crew started a go-around after touchdown, the fact left-leaning coverage led with. The Guardian reported that throttles rose to "go-around thrust" seconds after the gear touched. Fox News instead led with speed brakes and thrust reversers that never deployed and did not mention an abort. Without that context, stowed reversers sound like a failed stop rather than a climb attempt. Left-leaning coverage carried the cleaning company's tribute to dead workers it called family. Right-leaning coverage added a witness account of a pilot saying his "career is over." The quote is one bystander's story, not a finding on cause. Did the go-around after touchdown keep the reversers stowed, leaving the jet no way to stop once it stayed on the ground?
Bottom line

If you only saw Fox News, the story is a jet that never put its speed brakes out. The Guardian's version is that the pilots had already gone to climb power, which is when those brakes stay in.

The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
  • Flight data showed throttles increased to go-around thrust after the landing gear touched down official statementin The Guardian, ABC News · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • One pilot warned the other multiple times about excessive speed, with an inconsistent verbal response official statementin BBC · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • Miami International is not equipped with arresting beds installed at more than 120 U.S. airports contextin The Guardian · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • The captain had 7,145 flight hours and the first officer had 2,655 numberin Fox News, New York Post · absent from left-leaning coverage
  • An aviation attorney described the crash as a classic tailwind landing mistake contextin The Guardian · absent from right-leaning coverage
  • NTSB said it would examine the relationship between Amazon and operator 21 Air official statementin The Guardian · absent from right-leaning coverage
The Left View
Left-leaning outlets framed the story around a late abort and around airport and contractor context rather than around undeployed brakes alone. The Guardian and Washington Post led with NTSB signs that the crew initiated a go-around seconds before impact; the New York Times said the sequence showed the pilots “lost crucial seconds.” The BBC reported that one pilot warned the other multiple times about “the aircraft’s excessive speed,” with “not a consistent verbal response,” alongside “sink rate” and “too low terrain” alerts, and quoted aviation attorney Pablo Rojas calling it “a doomed approach.” The Guardian highlighted that Miami International is not equipped with runway “arresting beds” that the FAA says have been installed at more than 120 U.S. airports, cited attorney Robert Clifford calling the event “a classic tailwind landing mistake,” noted that the NTSB would examine Amazon’s relationship with 21 Air, and carried the cleaning company’s tribute to the dead workers as “family.”
The Right View
Right-leaning outlets led with undeployed deceleration systems and with the crew, not airport design or Amazon’s contractor relationship. Fox News and the New York Post headlined that “key braking systems did not deploy,” stressing that recorded data showed no speed-brake or thrust-reverser deployment even as wheel brakes were applied, and they highlighted investigator Chihoon Shin’s refusal to speculate on “what should have been” until the crew was interviewed. Fox separately reported a witness account that one pilot, after the wreck, told his wife by phone that “My career is over,” and both outlets foregrounded the captain’s and first officer’s ages and flight-hour totals.
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that recorder data, cockpit speed warnings, and a late throttle-up consistent with a go-around depict a fast approach in which the crew “lost crucial seconds,” and that Miami’s lack of arresting beds—installed at more than 120 other U.S. airports—worsened an overrun that reached a roadway. The right’s strongest argument is that the systems meant to dump lift and reverse thrust after touchdown did not deploy, a concrete gap the NTSB itself would not explain before interviewing the crew. The central unresolved tension is whether those same preliminary facts primarily indict a late, high-speed landing decision and an airport that could not contain an overrun, or the non-deployment of speed brakes and thrust reversers.

11 sources

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