Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami: at least 5 dead - PHOTO - VIDEO
At least five people were killed and five others injured in the crash of a Boeing 767 cargo plane belonging to the American company Amazon at Miami International Airport in the state of Florida, local county fire chief Ray Jadallah told reporters on the evening of Sunday, September 6.
Three of the injured, who were "in critical condition," were taken to hospitals, he specified.
According to the authorities, the plane, which was traveling from Puerto Rico, went off the runway while landing, crashed into several parked cars and caught fire. As a result of the collision, "some of the injured were trapped in the cars," the AFP agency quotes Jadallah as explaining.
The local fire chief also spoke about the "complex rescue operation" involving more than 60 fire trucks, which included rescuing the first and second pilots, who were trapped in the plane. Jadallah did not report whether they survived the crash.
The causes of the crash in Miami are not yet known, flights canceled
The causes of the crash are currently being investigated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), AFP reports. According to data from the Flightradar24 service, at the moment it went off the runway the plane was moving at a speed of about 207 km/h.
Due to the incident, the airport closed all of its runways. Several hours later, a notice appeared on its website recommending that passengers check information about rescheduled flights directly with the airlines.
Amazon, for its part, published a statement saying that the plane had experienced an "incident on approach," without specifying details. According to company spokeswoman Kelly Nantel, Amazon is "working closely with local authorities and officials to determine exactly what happened."
