The crash of a cargo plane in Miami on Sunday that killed five people echoed an earlier crash that also killed five at Miami International Airport in August 1997.
As with Sunday’s tragedy, that plane crash highlighted Miami’s role as a cargo hub serving the Caribbean and Latin America. It also highlighted potential risks at the busy airport, which is located in central Miami-Dade County and surrounded by warehouses, office parks and residential neighborhoods.
Drivers trapped in gridlocked traffic around the Miami airport often watch passenger and cargo jets landing or taking off just above the roofs of their vehicles.
In the 1997 case, a DC-8 bound for the Dominican Republic stalled. It skidded across an open field, a six-lane highway and a parking lot, and then exploded, producing a billowing cloud of black smoke — a similar scene to Sunday’s crash.
That plane belonged to Fine Air Services, a large cargo carrier at the time. The crash prompted a frantic and massive search for survivors. The crash scattered airplane debris and denim jeans, the plane’s cargo, across the highway.
The 1997 crash could have been much worse, county officials said at the time. Many workers were out for lunch at the area of small warehouses and businesses where the plane came to rest.
The Miami Herald reported that workers in nearby businesses ran to windows and saw the flaming cockpit coming. The plane’s nose slammed through the front of a computer store.
Three crew members and a security guard who were aboard the plane died in the Fine Air crash. A motorist struck by the wreckage also died.
The National Transportation Safety Board found that the airline had failed to control its cargo loading process and that the plane was not properly loaded.
Two companies involved in the crash later pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Fine Air acknowledged that supervisors had ordered subordinates to doctor cargo manifests after the crash. The other company, Aeromar Airlines, acknowledged that it had destroyed forms and surveillance footage that would have showed what was loaded on the plane.
