Black box recorders recovered from Amazon plane crash as more details emerge

The flight data ‌recorder and cockpit voice recorder from an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that overran the runway and crashed while landing in Miami on Sunday have been recovered, as more details emerge on the incident.

The aircraft flew from Cincinnati to Miami and then to San Juan, Puerto Rico on Sunday. It was returning to Miami when it overran the runway around 2pm (7pm UK time), broke through a perimeter fence, and struck vehicles.

Aside from the five who died, three people were critically injured, and two others were taken to hospital with less severe injuries, officials said.

The aircraft hit two vehicles, including a Ford van carrying seven people from a cleaning company and a Toyota SUV hit outside of airport property, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the incident,

The five people killed were inside vehicles.

Ms Homendy described the scene of Sunday's crash as "utter devastation". She did not detail how many people were in the SUV or where the dead were located.

The two people aboard the plane, the pilot and co-pilot, survived and had yet to be interviewed, Ms Homendy said at ​a press conference.

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The debris included vehicle airbags, equipment from the vehicles, the plane and the airport, and "fencing everywhere", Ms Homendy said.

The van with seven people inside was "torn apart", she said. The vehicle was owned by airline cleaning contractor Professional Ocean Service Corp.

Ms Homendy said the NTSB would issue more information on Tuesday, including possible details on the speed of the plane, confirmed by the flight data recorder.

Federal investigators spent Monday determining whether the aircraft touched down too late to stop safely.

Video appears to show the Boeing 767 still airborne well down the runway before it landed.

Aviation experts said investigators will seek to determine exactly where the plane landed, whether it was beyond the normal touchdown zone, and why the landing was not abandoned.

Investigators will also look at the plane's braking, weather and wind conditions, the aircraft's mechanical condition and other potential contributing factors.

The crash, which sent thick black smoke billowing into the sky, trapped the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit and some occupants in cars, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Ray Jadalla said.

Crews had to free a person trapped under a vehicle, the agency said.

The typical landing zone for a plane is within the first 3,000ft (914m) of a runway, experts said.

If the plane was beyond that area, it should have aborted the landing and gone around for another try, aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said.

Mary Schiavo, a pilot and former Inspector General of the Transportation Department, said footage posted online shows the plane floating above the runway for an extended period without flaring the nose upwards to force the main landing gear onto the ground.

Ms Schiavo said if the plane had a tailwind, this could have contributed to it floating further down the runway.

Miami International Airport said two of its runways remained closed on Monday, and a spokesperson said there were 160 cancellations and more than 300 delayed flights on Sunday.

Amazon said in a statement it would cooperate with any investigation.

(c) Sky News 2026: Black box recorders recovered from Amazon plane crash as more details emerge