Widow sues Amazon over Miami cargo plane crash

The cargo plane that crashed Sunday at Miami International Airport had logged "thousands of flight cycles" during its 32 years of service, according to the suit.(CN) — The widow of a man killed in a plane crash at a Florida airport Sunday accuses e-commerce giant Amazon and its aviation partners of negligence in a newly filed lawsuit.Yaraisi Santiso Morejon says that a combination of pilot error, poor training and aircraft failure caused a Boeing 767 freighter to barrel off the runway at Miami International Airport, killing her husband Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo and four others.“This disaster was not an unavoidable accident,” Morejon says in the suit.The Prime Air plane overran the runway around 2 p.m. after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and plowed across a road used by warehouse workers and other businesses that surround the airport. Five people were killed, three were critically injured and two others were hospitalized with less severe injuries, Miami-Dade County officials said at a news conference.The flight had been operated by 21 Air, a cargo carrier based in North Carolina. The 32-year-old Boeing 767 was originally built to carry passengers and flew for several airlines for more than two decades before being converted to a cargo plane in 2015, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.Morejon says in the suit that the plane had logged “thousands of flight cycles” before it crashed Sunday.Former 21 Air employees had also previously raised safety concerns at the company, including that it had suppressed safety reports, pushed crews to fly without proper rest, staffed pilots who could not communicate safety in English and flying planes with ongoing problems, she says.Southerly tailwinds and thunderstorm activity made Sunday’s landing particularly hazardous, Morejon says, and on approach the aircraft was traveling faster than normal for a shorter-than-average runway. The plane careened about 1,300 feet past the runway as a result, crashing into a van occupied by seven employees of an aircraft cleaning company and a second vehicle driving on a public road.Morejon filed the suit Wednesday in Miami-Dade County’s circuit court. She accuses the defendants, which include Amazon.com, 21 Air, Atlas Air Worldwide, and the plane’s pilots, Joseph Carroll and Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, of negligence, product liability and wrongful death. She seeks unspecified damages.Keith Winters, the chief executive of 21 Air, said in a written statement the company is cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and local authorities.“Our immediate priorities are supporting those affected, assisting the authorities, and ensuring that accurate information is communicated as it becomes available,” he said.Amazon and Atlas Air Worldwide did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Categories / Courts, NationalSubscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads