The Amazon cargo jet that crashed at Miami International Airport on Sunday overran the runway by about 1,300 feet, crashing into vehicles both inside and outside the airport boundary and killing multiple people, a federal official said Monday.
The accident killed at least five people and injured at least five others.
The scene of the accident is "utter devastation," Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said during a press briefing Monday.
"There's debris everywhere," she said.
Homendy didn't offer details on the cause of the crash.
Investigators, who will be on site for at least a week, "will not be determining probable cause while we are on the scene," Homendy said.
Investigators recovered the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, which will arrive at NTSB headquarters later Monday for evaluation, she said.
Investigators hope to be able to release additional information abut the crash on Tuesday, she said.
The plane, which was being operated for Amazon by 21 Air LLC, overran the runway around 2 p.m. Sunday. The flight was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was the third flight for the aircraft that day.
The aircraft struck a 2021 white Ford Econoline van owned by Professional Ocean Service Corp., a contract cleaning company for the airlines, which had seven people on board, Homendy said. It then busted through a perimeter fence, hitting a passenger vehicle — a Toyota Corolla Cross — outside the airport. The fatalities were all from those two vehicles, the NTSB said.
The plane slid through another fence that separated an area where Tesla robotaxis were stationed before stopping, Homendy said.
She said that investigators would look into the nature of the relationship between Amazon and 21 Air.
"This is an Amazon operation for transporting cargo, but it's actually contracted to 21 Air," Homendy said. "We're going to want to see what that relationship is, who does what, what safety provisions might be in any sort of contracts or any sort of policies."
Two of the four runways at Miami International Airport remain closed after the incident, according to a notification on the airport website.
The accident snarled air travel to and through the airport during a busy holiday travel weekend. More than 160 flights were canceled and nearly 325 delayed by late Sunday, according to FlightAware data cited by the Associated Press.
Travel delays continued into Monday.
"Cancellations continue due to aircraft and flight crews not having arrived," the airport website said. "Passengers with flights scheduled today should check directly with their airline for flight updates before heading to the airport."
The airport is the busiest U.S. airport for international freight, according to its website.
