MIA Runway Crash: What Miami Flyers Should Do This Week

If you have a flight touching Miami International Airport this week, you are flying into the tail end of one of the airport's most disruptive stretches in years. On Sunday afternoon, September 6, an Amazon Prime Air cargo jet, a Boeing 767-300 operated by the Miami-based carrier 21 Air and flying as Prime Air Flight 7598 from San Juan, Puerto Rico, overran a diagonal runway on landing, traveled roughly 1,300 feet past the pavement, tore through the airport perimeter fence and struck a cleaning van and an SUV on a nearby street. Five people on the ground were killed and five more injured, none of them passengers, since the aircraft was carrying only cargo and crew. The crash triggered a full ground stop and closed all four of MIA's runways at once, a step aviation officials describe as highly unusual for a major U.S. airport. The practical fallout has been significant and is still unwinding. Two runways reopened by Sunday evening, but the other two stayed shut into this week, and MIA logged roughly 196 cancellations on the day of the crash alone, with American Airlines, the airport's dominant carrier and its main gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean, absorbing the bulk of them, 117 canceled flights that Sunday. Delays and cancellations continued through Monday and Tuesday as the airport worked through a backlog of misplaced aircraft and crews, not just the physical runway closures. As of Wednesday, September 9, a third runway has reopened, putting three of MIA's four runways back in service, though the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into what caused the overrun is still in its early stages. Investigators have said the crew appeared to apply full go-around power in the final seconds before impact, and pilots are being interviewed this week, but no cause has been determined and there is no published timeline for finishing the investigation or fully clearing the crash site. Because MIA functions as American Airlines' primary hub for connecting traffic to and from Latin America, this disruption has rippled well beyond South Florida. Smaller regional carriers and once-daily international routes have less schedule redundancy to absorb a multi-day disruption than a domestic route with several flights a day, so travelers connecting through Miami to or from the Caribbean and Latin America have generally had a harder time rebooking than those flying purely domestic itineraries. So what should you actually do if MIA is anywhere in your plans right now? First, if you booked your ticket by September 5 and are scheduled to travel through September 10, check whether your airline's weather and operations waiver still applies; American Airlines has been letting affected customers change dates for free or shift to Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa, Sarasota-Bradenton or Key West instead of Miami, provided you stay in the same cabin. That window closes Wednesday, so if you have not already rebooked and want to use it, do it today rather than waiting. Second, do not book a tight same-day connection through MIA for the rest of this week. Even with three runways now open, the airport is still working through a backlog of aircraft and crews that are not where they are scheduled to be, and that kind of positioning problem tends to cause ripple delays for days after the physical damage is cleared. Third, know your rights: if your flight through MIA is canceled outright, you are entitled to a full cash refund to your original payment method if you choose not to travel, not just a rebooking credit or a voucher, regardless of what a gate agent offers first. Fourth, if you have real flexibility on airport choice for a South Florida trip in the next several days, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Palm Beach International are both reasonable alternatives that avoid MIA's backlog entirely, and are worth pricing out even if it means a slightly longer drive to your final destination. Finally, if your trip is not urgent, consider giving it a few more days before flying through Miami; airport operations, and especially international connections that rely on MIA's hub schedule, typically take longer to fully normalize after an incident like this than the runway reopening timeline alone would suggest. Sources Flight cancelations continue as 2 out of 4 Miami International Airport runways close after fatal cargo plane crash - Local10 - https://www.local10.com/business/2026/09/08/miami-international-airport-delays-continue-as-2-out-4-ramps-close-after-fatal-cargo-plane-crash/ NTSB provides latest updates on investigation into MIA cargo plane crash - Local10 - https://www.local10.com/news/local/2026/09/08/ntsb-provides-latest-updates-on-investigation-into-mia-cargo-plane-crash/ Delays, cancellations mount at Miami International Airport after deadly Amazon cargo plane crash - CBS Miami - https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/canceled-flights-deadly-amazon-plane-crash-miami-international-airport/ American Airlines Cancellations Enter Day Two As Passengers Struggle To Rebook Miami Flights - TheTravel - https://www.thetravel.com/american-airlines-cancellations-day-two-passengers-struggle-to-rebook-miami-flights/ Miami travelers stranded as cargo jet crash cripples MIA - The Traveler - https://www.thetraveler.org/miami-travelers-stranded-as-cargo-jet-crash-cripples-mia/