Amazon suspended cargo carrier 21 Air after one of its Prime-branded jets barreled off a Miami runway and killed five people — but the retail giant already has replacement carriers lined up, and the system that pushed pilots to fly questionable aircraft keeps spinning.
A Boeing 767 cargo jet landing at Miami International Airport on Sept. 6 overran the runway by roughly 1,300 feet and smashed into a van carrying workers for an airline cleaning service. All five people killed — Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47 — were on the ground. Five others were injured. Both pilots survived with minor injuries.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the company reviewed "some of the surrounding circumstances" and decided to pause operations with 21 Air. What Amazon didn't say is that former pilots had been sounding alarms about the North Carolina-based carrier for years.
"Unfortunately, 21 Air has a long-established history of safety problems," former pilot Karl Seuring, who filed a legal complaint against the company, told CBS News. Retired 21 Air pilot Tony Bless was blunter: "It's something a lot of us ex-21 Air pilots have been anticipating for a while." Bless cited maintenance issues, pilot quality, and pressure from managers.
21 Air is controlled by Houston Astros owner Jim Crane through an LLC. The company told NBC News it remains "confident in our safety policies, procedures and training."
The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary findings make that confidence hard to credit. Cockpit voice recorder data shows one pilot repeatedly warned the other they were going too fast on approach — and got no consistent response. The plane touched down, and about 15 seconds later a pilot called for a go-around. But NTSB investigator Chihoon Shin said the speed brakes and thrust reversers were never deployed — the basic systems used to slow a landing aircraft. It is not yet clear why.
The jet itself was 32 years old, originally built for passenger service and flown for foreign airlines for more than two decades before being converted to cargo in 2015, according to Flightradar24.
NPR noted the plane's age and foreign service history; NBC News detailed the NTSB's mechanical findings; the New York Post highlighted the former pilots' warnings and Crane's ownership. None of the outlets pressed Amazon on why it contracted with a carrier whose own pilots had already gone public with safety complaints — or whether Amazon's relentless shipping demands create the pressure that carriers like 21 Air pass down to cockpit crews.
Amazon says it will fill the gap with Sun Country Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Air Transport International, ABX Air, ASL Airlines, and Cargojet. Same system, different tail numbers.
Five working people are dead because a cargo plane couldn't stop on a runway. The company that hired the carrier suspended the contract. The carrier insists its safety policies are sound. Nobody with real power has been held accountable, and Amazon's packages will keep moving.
