Sept 7 – The US National Transportation Safety Board will hold a media briefing at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) on Monday to share its latest updates about Sunday’s deadly Amazon Prime Air cargo plane crash at Miami International Airport, the agency said in a post on X.
Prime Air Flight 7598 overran the airport’s diagonal runway shortly before 2 p.m. EDT and struck multiple vehicles on the ground, killing 5 people and injuring 5 more, including 3 who are in critical condition, officials said during a news conference on Sunday afternoon.
At least two people were trapped in vehicles that were struck by the plane, and the pilot and co-pilot were trapped inside the plane by the crash, said Miami-Dade Fire Chief Ray Jadallah.
More than 60 rescue units and about 200 personnel responded to the incident, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said in a statement. As of late Sunday afternoon, emergency personnel were still dealing with a fuel leak from the aircraft, according to Jadallah.
The NTSB said in a post on X on Sunday afternoon that it had “launched a go team” to investigate the accident.
Although the airport halted all flights immediately after the crash, flights had resumed by Sunday evening. But the incident had lingering consequences for travelers flying into Miami.
By noon EDT on Monday, inbound flights to the airport were delayed by more than 5 hours on average, and 232 flights had been canceled in the previous 24 hours, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
The plane, which departed from San Juan, Puerto Rico, was a 32-year-old Boeing 767-300 freighter that had operated as a passenger jet for various airlines from 1994 to 2015, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24.
Reuters photos after the crash showed the jet with its nose on the ground and tail tilted up. The right side of the plane had what appeared to be scorch marks.
Flightradar24 said the plane was traveling at 112 knots (129 mph) when it exited the usable runway.
(Reporting by Julia HarteEditing by Nick Zieminski)
Comments