An Amazon cargo plane crash at Miami International Airport resulted in five fatalities, leaving one pilot visibly distressed, eyewitness Abraham Altamar recounted. He encountered a shaking pilot with injuries on his forehead and hand.
Altamar was on a video call with his wife when the pilot emerged from the cockpit. The pilot declined Altamar’s offer to call 911, stating emergency services were already alerted. He requested to call his own wife, using Altamar’s phone, to reassure her of his condition.
“He just wanted his wife to notify his mother of the accident,” Altamar recalled. Altamar’s wife, Alexis, mentioned the pilot expressed concern for his career, saying, “My career is over.”
The pilots involved were identified as Joseph Carroll, 55, a captain with 21 Air, and Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37, a first officer. The specifics of which pilot Altamar encountered remain undetermined. Both pilots received medical treatment and were released, according to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, alongside LinkedIn and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) databases, confirmed the pilots’ identities. The aircraft, operated as Prime Air Flight 7598, overran the runway on September 6, 2026. The NTSB is conducting a comprehensive investigation.
Witnesses describe the aircraft colliding with navigation equipment, a cleaning crew van with seven occupants, a Toyota SUV outside the airport, and crashing through two fences before halting near Tesla robotaxis. All deceased were in the struck vehicles.
Footage shows a crew member jumping from the plane post-crash. The NTSB has not yet interviewed the plane’s pilots. Key data from the black boxes has been sent to Washington, D.C., for analysis, and Amazon and 21 Air are cooperating with the investigation.
Homendy called the crash scene “devastating,” noting tire marks on the surface and scattered debris. The investigation includes reviewing the use of safety beds at runway ends, known as Engineered Materials Arresting Systems (EMAS), to prevent runway overruns. More than 70 airports employ EMAS, a material designed to slow planes safely.
Miami International’s runway, where this incident occurred, possesses the standard 1,000-foot safety area but not EMAS.
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