Miami Plane Crash, Witkoff & Kushner Visit Ukraine, Far-Right AfD Wins In Germany

Leila Fadel (0:02)

Investigators are looking at what caused an Amazon cargo plane to crash at Miami International Airport.

Michel Martin (0:08)

Five people are dead and five others are injured after the plane overran the runway and smashed into multiple vehicles.

Leila Fadel (0:14)

I'm Leila Fadel, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.

President Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff went to Kiev for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion. They arrived from Moscow and said they want peace talks to restart.

Jared Kushner (0:31)

I think if we can achieve that, it would be an incredible thing.

Leila Fadel (0:34)

Their presence brought a rare break from Russian attacks.

Michel Martin (0:37)

And Germany's far-right party won by a landslide in a regional election. The AfD party campaigned on mass deportations. Its win could open the door to Germany's first far-right local government since the Nazis. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

Authorities in Florida are investigating a plane crash in Miami that killed five people on Sunday.

Leila Fadel (1:01)

An Amazon Prime cargo plane was landing at Miami International Airport around 2 PM Eastern when it overran the runway, crashed, and rammed into vehicles on the ground. Five people were injured as well.

It's not yet clear how many of the people killed or hurt were on board the plane or on the ground. Amazon says the plane was operated by 21 Air, a contract cargo carrier.

Michel Martin (1:25)

NPR's Arzu Rizvani has been following the story, and she's with us now to tell us more about it. Good morning, Arzu.

Arzu Rizvani (1:30)

Hey, Michelle.

Michel Martin (1:31)

So, investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board have started arriving in Miami. What are they going to be looking at to try to figure out what caused this crash?

Arzu Rizvani (1:39)

They'll be looking at everything from possible mechanical failure to environmental variables to flight crew performance. I spoke with Peter Goldz last night. He's the former managing director of the NTSB. He's now a transportation safety consultant, and he explained to me how this usually goes.

Peter Goldz (1:55)

They'll listen to the cockpit voice recorder to make sure that the pilots were following their checklists, were aware of the extenuating circumstances. They will look at the data recorder, which will tell them how fast the plane was going, when it touched down, what sort of breaking action was applied by the crew.

Arzu Rizvani (2:18)

Another detail investigators will likely examine are thunderstorms and winds that were directly over the airport at the time of the crash. Weather conditions are often a reason to delay or avoid a landing, but it's still a little too early to tell if weather was a key factor in this crash.

Michel Martin (2:34)

Okay. Do I have this right? That it's usually a combination of factors that cause us plane crashes?

Arzu Rizvani (2:40)

Yes, that's right. That's a big reason why these investigations are so extensive and take so much time. It's typically a series of cascading factors that contribute to any crash.

Michel Martin (2:50)

But how unusual is it for a plane to overrun the runway?

Arzu Rizvani (2:54)

Well, it's enough of a concern that for the last couple of decades, many airports, particularly those with shorter runways, have set up an engineered materials arresting system or EMAS, which is basically this crushable material placed at the end of a runway designed to help stop a plane that overruns the runway. These systems are not mandated by the FAA and Miami International Airport and it doesn't have that in place because the runways there are pretty long, which is why this crash at this particular airport is a bit curious.

Michel Martin (3:25)

And this was an Amazon plane that was operated by a contract cargo carrier. Could that figure into the investigation?

Arzu Rizvani (3:32)

Yeah, you know, this is something that also caught the attention of Goltz, the former NTSB director, and he thinks investigators will examine that corporate relationship that put this plane in the air to see, you know, who was responsible for flight crew training, who was responsible for maintenance. So, I think as this investigation goes on, that will be a space to watch.

Michel Martin (3:51)

And this crash happened on Labor Day weekend, which is one of the busiest travel periods. Did it affect other flights?

Arzu Rizvani (3:57)

It certainly did on Sunday. All runways and taxiways at Miami International were closed for several hours, that caused massive delays and cancellations. And that of course meant long lines at the airport with passengers rebooking flights, which in some cases kept getting canceled. It's unclear how much of that will continue today, but the airport's website says two of the four runways are back open now.