RismadarVoice Reporters
September 9, 2026
The widow of a man killed when an Amazon-branded cargo aircraft overran a runway at Miami International Airport has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the companies involved in the flight and the surviving pilots.
Yaraisi Santiso Morejon, wife of 53-year-old Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, filed the suit on Wednesday, three days after the crash that killed five people and injured five others.
The lawsuit names Amazon, Amazon Air Cargo and 21 Air as defendants. The two pilots who survived the crash, Joseph Carroll and Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, were also listed as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, the crash was allegedly a “foreseeable and preventable result of multiple, concurrent failures.”
The suit accuses the pilots of attempting a high-speed landing in tailwind conditions, while also alleging pilot error and inadequate training.
The Boeing 767-300 cargo aircraft was returning to Miami from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sunday when it overran the runway, according to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.
The aircraft had earlier flown from Cincinnati to Miami before continuing to San Juan. Amazon said the flight was operated by 21 Air.
Homendy said the plane went beyond the runway during landing, struck navigational equipment and then collided with a Ford van belonging to Professional Ocean Service Corp., an airline cleaning contractor.
The aircraft subsequently broke through a perimeter fence and struck a Toyota SUV travelling on a nearby road before coming to rest in a grassy area.
Rodriguez Naranjo was driving the van and died at the scene, according to his lawyers. Attorney Mike Morgan said the workers had completed their final assignment and were on their way home when the crash occurred.
Four other workers in the van also died. They were identified by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
The cleaning company said it was “heartbroken” by the deaths of its employees.
Five other people were injured in the crash and taken to hospital. Eugenio Corredor, 79, and Ridoel Averhoff Diaz, 32, were reported to be in critical condition, while Roosevelt Sebastian Perdomo Torres, 36, was listed as stable.
The two pilots were treated and later released from the hospital.
Morgan, representing Rodriguez Naranjo’s family, alleged that the aircraft overshot the runway by more than 1,000 feet and approached at a speed significantly above what was appropriate for the landing conditions.
He also pointed to a tailwind as a factor that increased the difficulty of the landing.
“This aircraft should have made a fly-around attempt, a go-around attempt,” Morgan said.
He further alleged that communications from the cockpit indicated confusion about the situation and the danger posed by the runway overshoot.
Morgan described the crash as a disaster that could have been prevented through proper care and procedures.
21 Air had not responded to requests for comment as of Wednesday.
Amazon and Amazon Air Cargo, however, expressed sympathy for the victims and their families, saying the company was cooperating fully with the investigation and coordinating with 21 Air.
The company also said it was working with Miami-Dade authorities to obtain contact information for families affected by the crash.
The NTSB said the captain, Carroll, had 7,145 hours of flight experience, while first officer Silva Molina had logged 2,655 hours.
Carroll was certified to operate the aircraft type involved in the crash in May, while Silva Molina received his rating for the aircraft in April 2025.
The aircraft was carrying more than 32,000 pounds of cargo, largely contact lenses, when the accident occurred.
Meanwhile, investigators said the cause of the crash had not been established.
NTSB investigator-in-charge Chihoon Shin said the aircraft’s flight data recorder showed an increase in thrust during the landing, consistent with an attempted go-around.
However, four seconds later, the throttles were reduced to idle, and the landing gear brakes were reapplied.
Shin said the aircraft’s speed brakes and thrust reversers were not deployed before the recording ended, but stressed that it was too early to determine why those systems were not used.
Investigation into the crash is ongoing.
