A cargo jet flying under the Amazon Prime Air banner skidded off the runway and caught fire at Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon, coming to rest near NW 67th Avenue as more than 50 emergency vehicles rushed to the scene. The Boeing 767-300F freighter, operating as Flight CSB7598 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, overran Runway 30 during its arrival, according to the dossier's timeline of the incident.
Video that circulated Sunday appeared to show the aftermath, with the crashed plane visible outside the airport, according to NBC 6 South Florida. Separately, footage and local reports examined by The Aviation Hub showed heavy black smoke and flames rising from the freighter as crews arrived. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop at Miami International Airport at approximately 2:02 p.m. EDT, temporarily halting inbound air traffic while responders worked the scene, per the same outlet's reporting.
Ground Stop Snarls Air Traffic at Major Cargo Hub
The ground stop rippled across one of the country's busiest air cargo gateways. Miami International Airport functions as a critical logistics hub linking North American, Latin American, and Caribbean commercial routes, a role documented by FreightWaves. That volume of freight traffic underscores why even a single runway obstruction can cascade into broader delays across the airport's operations.
Air traffic control audio released Sunday captured real-time exchanges between controllers and emergency personnel as the runway overrun unfolded, according to Cedar News. The recordings offer an early window into how responders coordinated in the first moments after the aircraft left the pavement, though full details of the emergency communications have not been independently summarized beyond that release.
Aging Freighter Flew Under Third-Party Operator
The aircraft involved was registered N1997A, a 32-year-old Boeing 767 built in 1994 that originally flew as a passenger jet before its 2016 conversion into a cargo freighter, the aviation outlet reported. The plane was not operated directly by Amazon. Flight CSB7598 was flown by cargo carrier 21 Air on behalf of Amazon Prime Air, following 21 Air's addition to Amazon's transport network in November 2024 and the transfer of the aircraft's operating certificate in January 2025, according to reporting cited from FreightWaves.
That arrangement reflects how Amazon's Prime Air cargo brand relies on contracted airlines to fly its livery on widebody freighters, many of them converted from older passenger airframes. Key questions remain open, including whether any crew or ground injuries occurred, whether vehicles on NW 67th Avenue were affected as the jet departed the runway, and what caused the excursion in the first place, whether mechanical failure, brake trouble, or weather.
Federal Investigators to Examine Cause
Under standard protocol, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board conduct joint investigations following commercial runway overruns, inspecting aircraft components, airport infrastructure, and flight recorder data, according to VINnews. Full preliminary findings from such investigations typically take several weeks to surface.
Sunday's incident is not the first cargo emergency tied to Miami International Airport in recent years. In January 2024, an Atlas Air Boeing 747-8 cargo jet bound for Puerto Rico suffered an inflight engine fire shortly after takeoff from MIA, forcing an emergency return landing with no injuries reported, according to Business Insider. And in February 2019, an Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767-300 freighter operated by Atlas Air crashed into Trinity Bay near Houston after departing Miami, killing all three crew members aboard, according to Wisner Baum, which noted that NTSB investigators in that case focused on crew spatial disorientation.
