EVwire brief: An Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo jet overran Runway 30 at Miami International Airport on September 6, crossed the airport perimeter road, and seemingly came to rest just car-lengths from a fenced staging lot where dozens of Tesla Cybercabs were parked. The incident resulted in five fatalities and several injuries.
Here’s a video of the crash as shared on X.
Photos from the scene show the aircraft's nose stopped within meters of a parked Tesla fleet, which included Model Ys and Cybercabs. Most of the vehicles appear intact, though a few closest to the aircraft's nose may have sustained damage.
The fleet of gold-painted Cybercabs had been spotted at the lot near the airport perimeter the day before the incident. Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt documented 35 Cybercabs at the staging area on the Saturday before the crash.
The image below shows how close the aircraft came to the row of parked Cybercabs:
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Prime Air Flight 7598, a Boeing 767-300F (registration N1997A) operated by 21 Air for Amazon, was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico when it failed to stop on the runway. The aircraft crossed NW 67th Avenue and came to rest in a field adjacent to the airport. The FAA issued a ground stop and closed all runways and taxiways at MIA.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmed that "multiple vehicles" were struck, but has not confirmed how many, if any, of the Cybercabs were among them. Neither Tesla nor airport authorities have issued a statement about the Cybercab fleet specifically, though Elon Musk responded on X with a single-word reply: “Weird.”
Some observers noted that the Cybercabs' Sentry Mode cameras were likely recording at the time of the crash, meaning Tesla may have multi-angle footage of the runway excursion from the vehicles' onboard cameras.
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Context:
Tesla launched Unsupervised Robotaxi service in Miami on July 3 using Model Y vehicles in a geofenced zone in the city's western suburbs. The Cybercabs at the airport staging lot had not yet entered commercial service in Miami. For now, Tesla’s Cybercab fleet has only been deployed in Austin, though the vehicles are expected to be rolled out in other cities too.
The FAA is investigating the cause of the runway overrun. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel stated: "We’re working closely with local authorities and officials to understand exactly what happened. Right now, our absolute priority is the safety, well-being, and care of everyone involved."
Source: EV, @ONLYinDADE, @dianavosila, @SawyerMerritt, @xdNiBoR, and @JackLinFLL on X
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