Five people were killed and five others seriously injured after an Amazon Air cargo plane overshot the runway while attempting to land at Miami International Airport on September 6.
The Boeing 767-300 cargo aircraft crashed shortly before 14:00 local time (19:00 GMT) after departing from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The plane also struck several vehicles on the ground, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.
"At least five people have lost their lives, and five others are injured," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference on Sunday evening.
Levine Cava said rescue crews arrived at the crash site within "seconds" of the incident. Miami Fire Chief Raied Jadallah said three of the five injured people were in critical condition. The mayor said all of the injured were taken to hospital with "unknown injuries".
Several people were trapped inside or beneath vehicles and had to be freed by fire and rescue crews, Jadallah said.
More than 200 firefighters responded to the crash. The fire was extinguished, but a fuel leak remained at the site, according to Jadallah.
Miami International Airport said the flight, operated by North Carolina-based charter company 21 Air, "overran Miami International Airport's diagonal runway and is disabled at the northwest end of the airport."
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said crews "arrived to find an airplane that had caught on fire as a result of this crash, with heavy flames and smoke showing".
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered all flights grounded as emergency crews responded to the smoking crash site. The incident occurred over the Labour Day weekend, one of the busiest travel periods of the year in the United States.
Amazon said it is "working closely with local authorities and officials to understand exactly what happened".
Officials said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates major aviation accidents in the United States, will lead the investigation and plans to hold a news conference on Monday.
By Sabina Mammadli
