Cargo jet tried to abort unsteady landing before Miami crash, flight data indicates

An Amazon cargo plane sits at Miami International Airport after overshooting a runway on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, in Miami. David Santiago/AP hide caption

MIAMI — Flight data suggest an Amazon cargo plane tried to abort an unsteady landing at Miami International Airport before smashing into a van and killing five people inside, according to information investigators released Tuesday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators will interview the pilot and co-pilot on Wednesday as they try to determine why the jet overran the runway while landing Sunday.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at an evening news conference that they are reviewing flight data and cockpit recordings to figure out what happened in the seconds before the aircraft slammed into the van on airport property, careened through a fence and then smashed an SUV on a city street.

Homendy said investigators want to talk to the pilots before releasing anything from the cockpit voice recorder about why they appeared to briefly attempt to perform a go-around to retry the landing approach before abandoning that and trying to stop the plane. She said the data showed the thrust reversers were never used to help stop the plane.

The five people killed were all inside a van used to shuttle crews that clean planes, authorities said.

Five other people were injured. The pilot and co-pilot have been released from the hospital, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said Tuesday. Two people remain in critical condition, while a third is in stable condition, she said.

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."