At least five people died and another five were injured this Sunday when a cargo plane operated by Amazon went off the runway during landing at Miami International Airport, collided with several vehicles and ended up engulfed in flames, prompting a large mobilization of emergency services.
The accident occurred around 2 PM when flight 7598 of Prime Air, operated by the company 21 Air, a Boeing 767-300, veered off one of the airport's diagonal runways and ended up beyond the operational area limits.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office and the Miami-Dade Fire Department confirmed that at least 10 people were involved in the accident. Fire Chief Raied Jadallah reported that three of the injured were taken to a trauma center in critical condition, while two others were transported to local hospitals for medical attention.
Rescue efforts were complicated by a fire that originated in the aircraft's engine compartment and a fuel leak caused by the impact. Specialized teams used foam to control the flames, and hazardous materials units worked to contain the spill.
''We still have an active fuel leak that is being mitigated,'' Jadallah explained during an update on the emergency operations.
Several of the victims were trapped in the vehicles struck by the plane. One of them required extraction procedures performed by personnel specialized in technical rescues. Emergency teams also conducted search and rescue operations inside the aircraft, where the pilots and co-pilots remained trapped in the cockpit.
