Brief
NTSB says Miami cargo plane pilots were not warned of tailwind
The report blames a missed wind advisory for the overrun that killed five people in a service van.
By Felo News Desk · Published
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board says an air‑traffic controller did not tell the pilots of an Amazon cargo plane about a strong tailwind before the aircraft overran the runway at Miami International Airport on Sept. 6, 2026.
What happened
The Boeing 767‑type cargo plane, carrying Amazon packages, landed fast after a flight from Puerto Rico and travelled about 1,200 ft beyond the runway end, striking a service van. Five people in the van were killed, two others in the van were seriously injured, and the driver of a car hit by the plane was also seriously hurt. Both pilots escaped with minor injuries.
What the report adds
The NTSB report notes that, four minutes before clearing the Amazon plane for landing, a controller issued a wind advisory to a different flight, warning of gusts up to 25 mph from the south. Federal regulations require both wind direction and velocity to be stated when a tail‑wind component exists, but the controller did not pass that information to the Amazon crew.
What was said
"When you’ve got winds like that, it is your responsibility as a controller to issue that to a pilot, especially on landing and especially when you have gusts," said Tony Mello, a former FAA official who oversaw air‑traffic control services in the central United States, as reported by the New York Post.
Former NTSB member John Goglia said the omission was "significant but, in and of itself, would not have caused a crash," adding that every crash is a chain of events.
How it came about
Earlier Felo News coverage reported the same NTSB findings on Oct. 1, 2026, highlighting the missed wind advisory and the regulatory requirement to relay tail‑wind data. Amazon suspended its partnership with carrier 21 Air after the crash, and the investigation remains ongoing, with the final cause yet to be determined.
Key facts
- An air‑traffic controller failed to relay a tail‑wind advisory to the Amazon cargo plane before landing. (nypost.com)
- The plane overran the runway by about 1,200 ft and struck a service van, killing five people. (nypost.com)
- Both pilots sustained only minor injuries. (nypost.com)
- Federal regulations require wind direction and velocity to be stated when a tail‑wind component exists. (nypost.com)
- The NTSB report is preliminary and does not list a definitive cause. (nypost.com)
Sources
- [1] nypost.com — originally reported as “Federal report says pilots weren’t warned about wind before Amazon cargo plane crashed in Miami”
