Amazon suspends use of cargo plane operator involved in deadly Miami airport crash following accusations of safety violations

Amazon will no longer be using private cargo carrier 21 Air after one of its planes overran a runway in Miami in a crash that left five people dead.

The decision came after the company reviewed the circumstances surrounding the September 6 crash while supporting the National Transportation Safety Board investigation.

‘After the tragic incident last weekend, we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances, and we’ve decided to pause our operations with 21 Air, the operator of Flight 7598,’ Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement to NBC News.

The company will now use other carriers to transport shipments that would have been assigned to 21 Air – including Sun Country Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Air Transport International, ABX Air, ASL Airlines and Carojet, Nantel added. 

The announcement comes after North Carolina-based 21 Air, which specializes in cargo shipments to and from Mexico, said that it remains focused on supporting those affected by the crash ‘as well as working closely with the NTSB and all our partners, like Amazon, as the investigation continues.

‘We are confident in our safety policies, procedures and training,’ the company said. 

But according to interviews and records cited by CBS News, former employees claimed they were let go by the cargo airline for voicing safety concerns.

‘Unfortunately, 21 Air has a long-established history of safety problems,’ said Karl Seuring, a pilot with more than three decades of experience to the outlet.

Seuring filed a legal complaint claiming that when he raised concerns about safety issues to a 21 Air manager, he was told: ‘It’s not going to change.’

According to the outlet, the pilot brought his retaliatory firing case to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which rejected his complaint against 21 Air.

Seuring appealed the decision before a federal judge in 2023 in a Department of Labor tribunal, where the case is still pending.

Documents cited by CBS show that several pilots’ safety complaints regarding putting faulty planes in the air, improper rest for flight crews and staffing pilots who could not communicate safely in English were buried by 21 Air managers.

Michael Anello, Seuring’s attorney, told a judge that another 21 Air pilot, Johnny Salmonson, was pressured to make flights that defied safety regulations regarding required rest periods.

‘The management was pushing the pilots, and the result was he was retaliated against,’ Anello said.

On one occasion in April 2022, Seuring detailed during testimony how a mechanical problem caused a plane to continuously accelerate to the point where it exceeded speeds that could damage its wing flaps.

The pilot said that during the incident he felt ‘concerned for my own safety.’

He claimed in tribunal testimony that following the incident there was ‘no debrief. No discussion. Assume it didn’t happen,’ with his captain, David Norgren.

Seuring also testified about a 21 Air plane flying from Alabama to Trinidad in the spring of 2022 that allegedly had a pressurization problem, forcing it to make an emergency diversion to Puerto Rico.

He accused the captain of the plane, Amir Anoshiravani, of having the ‘inability to take command of the operation,’ and added that ‘the first officers had to jointly intervene to get the airplane safely on the ground.’

Anoshiravani told CBS News he had ‘never come in contact’ with Seuring and added, ‘I don’t believe in lies. He has anger at the company because he was fired.’

Bruce Joseph, another former 21 Air pilot, testified in his own Labor Department tribunal in March 2024 that on numerous occasions people were discouraged from reporting safety issues.

Joseph accused the firm’s then-director of safety of warning him not to log a safety issue without first speaking to the company’s then-CEO, Mike Mendez.

The pilot said there were only a ‘couple of occasions’ where his concerns were actually logged because he would ‘press’ the issue, but by doing so he ‘would have the wrath of Mike.’

21 Air operates about 17 planes, eight of which fly for Amazon – which has worked with the airline for nearly two years. It also transports shipments for DHL Express.

In a statement following the deadly crash, 21 Air said it is ‘devastated by the accident involving one of our aircraft in Miami on September 6.’

‘Our deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives. Our immediate priorities are supporting those affected, assisting the authorities, and ensuring that accurate information is communicated as it becomes available.

‘We are cooperating fully with the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, and local authorities. The circumstances of the accident are under investigation.’

The five victims were identified as Rolando Aleman, 55, Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53, Julio C Pineda, 75, Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53, and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.

Joseph Carroll, 55, and Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37, were at the helm of the Boeing 767 when it slammed into a van, then through a fence, and onto a local street where it destroyed an SUV. They have since been released from the hospital.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but data from the plane’s cockpit voice recorder revealed that as one pilot was trying to land, the other repeatedly cautioned that the aircraft was going too fast.

There was then no ‘consistent verbal response to the comments about speed,’ according to a summary of the data released by the NTSB.

Data also showed that the plane touched down at Miami International Airport, and about 15 seconds later, a pilot called for a go-around – a maneuver in which a plane aborts its landing by pulling up and circling around the airport to try again.

The aircraft’s flight data recorder showed that its thrust then increased during landing, in a manner consistent with a go-around attempt, NTSB’s investigator in charge of the probe, Chihoon Shin, said at a news conference last week.

He added that ‘the speed brakes and the thrust reversers were not deployed.’

Speed brakes are flaps that are deployed to help an aircraft speed down, while thrust reversers are used to slow a plane during landing.

It remains unclear why those devices might not have been deployed, Shin said. 

A preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Administration also noted that the airport is not equipped with the Engineered Materials Arresting System, which has been installed at more than 120 airports nationwide.

The system places beds of lightweight, crushable material at the end of a runway to help bring planes that overshoot the tarmac safely to a stop, the agency said.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Amazon and 21 Air for more information.