Amazon pauses 21 Air operations as NTSB investigation continues
Families of the five Cuban immigrant men killed when an Amazon cargo plane overran a runway at Miami International Airport earlier this month have filed wrongful death lawsuits against Amazon, its contracted operator 21 Air, and the pilots of Flight 7598, according to Mark Lopez-Trigo, an attorney representing the Pineda family. The two lawsuits — filed within days of each other — argue that the disaster was foreseeable and preventable, alleging multiple failures by Amazon, 21 Air, and the pilots led to the deaths.
The Boeing 767 cargo aircraft had arrived at Miami International Airport on a flight from Puerto Rico when it landed too fast on the runway, crashed through a perimeter fence, and struck a van in which aircraft cleaning crew members were sitting. Five workers from Professional Ocean Services Corp, a contracted cleaning company, died in the crash. Four of the dead were friends and colleagues of one another, according to the attorney. Two additional aircraft cleaning crew members remain hospitalized in critical condition, while three others — the two pilots and a man in a separate vehicle — received minor injuries.
Officials who reviewed evidence collected from the scene, including the aircraft’s black box flight recorder, have said the data suggests the pilots attempted to abort the landing attempt and initiate a fly-around by increasing throttle speed, but that the plane never became airborne again. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have said a final report could be months away.
Among the dead was Julio Pineda, a 75-year-old Cuban immigrant who had lived in the United States since 2001. The kitchen was one of his happy places in his Hialeah community, where he would cook for family, friends, and neighbors wearing a red apron embroidered with “Chef Mago” — Spanish for “wizard chef” — and would feed and entertain them even after an exhausting shift for the aircraft cleaning company that employed him. “It’s just who he was, an outstanding man who was well loved in his community, who would help people out with anything they needed, and someone taken from his family suddenly in terrible circumstances,” said Mark Lopez-Trigo, an attorney representing the Pineda family.
“It wasn’t just the food, or the magic tricks he’d perform for the neighborhood kids, or the candies he gave them,” Lopez-Trigo added. “The person he was will be missed. He loved his sons, he loved his grandchildren. There’s a lot of pain for the family right now, they’re still in the grieving process.”
Pineda continued working past typical retirement age, Lopez-Trigo said, because he loved the people and stayed active. “He’s not really the person who likes to sit and be inside all day. He’s a working man, it’s a hard, laborious job that requires manual labor and long hours, so yeah, he was definitely a hard worker,” the attorney said. “He was just trying to make a living and keep himself busy, just like the rest of us.” Pineda’s funeral was held on the Sunday of the prior week, seven days after the crash.
The other four victims were Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47. All five were Cuban immigrants who came to the US to make better lives for themselves and their families, according to Lopez-Trigo.
A second wrongful death lawsuit — filed by lawyers for Yaraisi Santiso Morejon, Naranjo’s widow, and described as nearly identical to the Pineda family’s — was filed two days earlier, also arguing that the event was foreseeable and preventable and that multiple failures by Amazon, 21 Air, and the pilots led to the disaster.
Amazon has paused its operations with 21 Air in the aftermath of the crash. In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said: “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. We’ll continue working to support the investigation and everyone affected.”
A statement from 21 Air said, in part: “We are confident in our safety policies, procedures and training.”
Lopez-Trigo said neither Amazon nor 21 Air has reached out directly to the Pineda family, though he said he was not surprised given that legal action is under way. He has spoken with lawyers for the other families and expects to coordinate the cases. “A rising tide lifts all ships, and what that means is there’s a concerted effort from everybody to make sure that the appropriate, correct justice is handed down for all these people that are affected,” he said. Filing the lawsuits, he added, compels the parties to preserve evidence so investigators and attorneys can determine how the incident happened and where any blame lies.
The attorney outlined three forms of justice the families are pursuing. “The first is being able to recover the body, recover some of the personal items, to be able to lay to rest somebody dear to their heart,” Lopez-Trigo said. “The second form of justice is getting the answers to all of the questions that they have. Who exactly is responsible? Why did the pilots make the decisions they did and make the mistakes they did? And the third is to make sure this never happens again to anybody else.”
Robert Clifford, a veteran airline industry lawyer not involved in the Miami cases, said he expected the lawsuits to become consolidated at some point and that the families would likely benefit from the NTSB’s willingness to share findings more promptly. “It’s very encouraging that the board is issuing this information earlier, and I can tell you that for years they did not,” Clifford said. He said that NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy had overseen a shift in the board’s transparency practices. “Over the years there was so much criticism of the NTSB’s lack of transparency, and now this board, the chair Jennifer Homendy, is trying to change all that to where she’s giving the families a kind of silent voice and assurance that their interests are being properly protected.”
“You know if the government ends up doing all the investigation for you, then that’s OK. It sure as hell doesn’t hurt them.”