NTSB investigators to interview pilots of crashed Amazon cargo jet Wednesday

CBC News

· Posted: Sep 08, 2026 10:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says it will interview the two pilots who survived the crash Sunday of their Amazon cargo jet in Miami. The NTSB says its has already obtained data from the voice recorder that was recovered from the aircraft Monday, but will not release it yet.

"The cockpit voice recorder contained more than two hours of good quality audio," said NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy at a briefing Tuesday evening. "We're interviewing the pilots tomorrow, and we want to hear their account of the accident before we release a readout of the cockpit voice recorder."

NTSB investigator Chihoon Shin told reporters at the same briefing that 30 seconds before the end of the flight data recording, the nose landing gear and right main landing gear ​touched down, while 19 seconds before the ⁠end, the left main ⁠landing gear touched down.

A few seconds ⁠later, ⁠he said, the brakes ​were released and the throttles were increased to ​values consistent ⁠with go-around thrust.

Shin added there was "no indication in the recorded data that speed brakes or thrust reversers were deployed."

WATCH | Watch Tuesday's full NTSB briefing:

5 killed on the ground

The jet overran the runway while landing Sunday. It slammed into a van on airport property, careened through a fence and then smashed an SUV on a city street.

The five people killed were all in a van owned by Professional Ocean Service Corp., a company that cleans planes. The company said it wouldn't comment on the crash out of respect for the families who lost loved ones.

"Our employees are far more than the people who work beside us each day, they are family, and they are deeply loved. Our hearts and prayers are with every employee and every family whose lives have been forever changed," it said in a statement Tuesday.

• Investigators recover voice and data recorders from Amazon cargo crash at Miami airport

• At least 5 dead after Amazon cargo plane barrels off Miami runway and smashes into cars: police

The Miami-Dade sheriff identified the deceased as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.

Five other people were injured. Two people remain in critical condition, while a third is in stable condition, she said.

Investigators inspect one of the vehicles damaged in the crash Sunday. (Rebecca Blackwell/The Associated Press)

Both the mangled white van, its entire front end crushed, and the SUV — so badly damaged it was nearly unrecognizable — remained at the crash site Tuesday, along with the jet, which sat nose-down with a large soot mark near the P in "Prime Air."

The Amazon jet was landing after a two-hour flight from Puerto Rico as storms brewed around the Miami airport.

The NTSB said the plane barrelled roughly 396 metres past the end of the runway.

Miami's airport does not have a runway excursion system — the lightweight, crushable material that the Federal Aviation Administration says has saved around 500 lives.

Even without it, Miami's airport appears to be compliant with federal rules because it has a 305-metre safety buffer at the end of its runways, experts said.

The flight had been operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North Carolina. The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines in foreign countries for more than two decades before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.

Two of the four runways at the Miami airport remained closed Tuesday, and Homendy said they will not be reopened until NTSB investigators gather all the information they need from the crash scene.