Question: how might this be President Trump's fault?
- Thread starter Diogenes
- Start date
Solution
T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
It will be interesting to see who the flight deck crew on that plane were. If that information is not with-coming, you can almost bet it's minorities with low flying hours.
Grapevine dried up?
There is a pilot shortage and Amazon pays as little as they can, that is one of the reasons they use contractors rather than operating themselves.....and they have a liability shield so they likely dont give a fuck if there are unsafe operations.
Add it all up and ......
Add it all up and ......
Officials provide new details on Amazon cargo plane crash at MIA
Officials provide new details on Amazon cargo plane crash at MIA
T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
Hawkeye's psychotic, err, psychic powers aren't working today. Not enough alcohol and mind-altering chemicals...
Perhaps the grapevine wasn't watered because of something Trump caused. Climate change?
Nick Plumb
@PlumbNick
Everyone is focused on the Amazon cargo jet that crashed in Miami. I started looking at the airline actually flying it: 21 Air.Its pilot group appears to have grown from ~20 in 2021 to ~135 today, probably to support the 7 additional 767s Amazon shifted to it from Atlas Air. Public résumés show current pilots with prior flying careers in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Central America, Ethiopia and India. 21 Air also hires permanent residents and other work-authorized noncitizens.Not particularly relevant but interesting: the company is controlled by Jim Crane, owner of the Houston Astros.How this little-known carrier scaled this fast may be worth digging into.
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And FAA oversight.
Must be Trump's fault, then, huh?
Buzz Patterson
@BuzzPatterson
He’s high, fast, floats, and I don’t see any thrust reversers deployed. They should’ve gone around at about the 3000’ point. After that, they were screwed.Also, as one who’s landed at MIA a hundred times, precipitation is a normal occurrence. This is a classic pilot error situation. It’s also incumbent on the pilots to understand the wind conditions. Our airplanes give that. If tailwinds are out of limits, that’s on the pilots. Been there, done that.
@BuzzPatterson
He’s high, fast, floats, and I don’t see any thrust reversers deployed. They should’ve gone around at about the 3000’ point. After that, they were screwed.Also, as one who’s landed at MIA a hundred times, precipitation is a normal occurrence. This is a classic pilot error situation. It’s also incumbent on the pilots to understand the wind conditions. Our airplanes give that. If tailwinds are out of limits, that’s on the pilots. Been there, done that.
T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
Once it was obvious they weren't going to get on the ground before running out of runway, they should have declared they were going around and put the power on to climb out of the airport for a new attempt. They already were at speed to fly, so going around makes perfect sense.
Nick Plumb
@PlumbNick
The captain has now been identified as Joseph Carroll, 55. He wasn’t some rookie - he was an Army Black Hawk pilot, instructor pilot, SkyWest and then a 737 captain.But his public profile shows his B757/767 captain qualification was issued in June 2026.The crash was September 6.So I went back and looked at what was happening around him. Amazon shifted 7 767s from Atlas Air to 21 Air, a tiny carrier whose pilot group appears to have gone from ~20 pilots in 2021 to roughly 135-160 today.At the same time 21 Air was adding 757s, reportedly struggling through FAA certification delays, changing senior leadership, hiring out SOC/maintenance leadership and rebuilding pieces of its training operation.It was also asking the FAA to let it count 757 + 767 experience together for certain crew-pairing and captain landing-minimum rules.The first officer has now been identified too: Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37, an ATP and flight instructor but I still can’t find his actual 767 experience.None of this proves why the airplane crashed, but if you zoom out…Amazon took flying previously performed by Atlas (one of the biggest cargo airlines in the world) and moved part of it to a carrier that then had to scale at an extraordinary rate around Amazon’s demand.This is one of the problems with allowing companies like Amazon to become this powerful. They don’t just dominate a market, they literally reshape it and then when something breaks - the first thing they say is “operated by 21 air.”
Carroll’s B757/767 captain qualification date of June 2026 comes from Plumb’s review of public profiles. Mainstream reporting confirms he is a 21 Air captain with a varied background (helicopters, SkyWest, 737) but does not independently publish that exact type-rating month. Three months from type rating to this flight would be short but not automatically disqualifying; NTSB will examine training, recent experience, and pairing.
Confirmed facts
- Crash: On 6 September 2026, 21 Air Flight 7598 (Amazon Prime Air), a 32-year-old Boeing 767-300 freighter (N1997A) arriving from San Juan, overran Runway 30 at MIA by ~1,300 ft, struck navigational aids, a cleaning-crew van, and an SUV, then caught fire. Five people in the van died; five others were injured. Both pilots survived, were hospitalized, and released.
- Pilots: Captain Joseph Carroll, 55; First Officer Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37. Names match Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office release + FAA pilot database and LinkedIn (Miami Herald). Carroll is listed as a 21 Air captain with multi-engine and helicopter qualifications. Silva Molina is a 21 Air FO with a Colombian aeronautical-engineering degree; public sources do not detail his 767 time.
- Operator and ownership: 21 Air (Greensboro, NC; ops center in Miami) flew the plane under contract for Amazon. It is controlled by Jim Crane (Houston Astros owner) via LLC. Cargojet previously held 25% and sold it in April 2026.
- Amazon/Atlas shift and fleet growth: 21 Air began Amazon CMI flying in late 2024 as Atlas Air wound down some Amazon 767 work. Amazon supplied/leased 767s previously associated with Atlas/Titan. Fleet grew from a handful of aircraft when Crane acquired control (~2021) to ~16–22 aircraft (mostly 767s plus 757s) by 2026. That scale-up is documented.
- FAA combined-experience request: 21 Air petitioned the FAA (reported March 2025) to count 757 + 767 time together for certain crew-pairing and new-captain landing-minima rules. Leadership turnover (CEO change to Keith Winters) and training/ops rebuilds are also reported in trade press
What is being said
- Cause of the overrun (weather, tailwind, energy management, go-around decision, aircraft systems, runway/EMAS, crew experience, company procedures, etc.). Early unofficial comments from other pilots noted a high/fast approach and no go-around; those are observations, not findings.
- Any causal link to President Trump or current federal policy. The thread title is sarcastic; the quoted post is about Amazon contracting, 21 Air’s scale-up, and FAA process. Amazon’s use of multiple CMI cargo operators predates 2025.
- That Silva Molina lacked 767 experience. Absence of a public résumé line is not proof of zero time.
CBS and others have separately reported prior employee safety complaints and lawsuits at 21 Air; NTSB has not tied those to this accident.
Public campaign-finance reporting does not show Jim Crane (Houston Astros owner / 21 Air controlling owner) as a Trump donor.
For the 2024 cycle, Front Office Sports, citing OpenSecrets, listed Astros owner Jim Crane as giving $31,600 to Biden and Harris and $18,400 to the DNC. An OpenSecrets donor record matches James R. Crane of Houston giving $18,400 to DNC Services Corp in April 2024. He does not appear on Houston Chronicle’s list of the city’s largest Trump 2024 donors.
Older pattern:
- Before ~2002 he gave to Republicans (including the RNC and Texas GOP figures).
- In the 2010s he was described as a Democrat donor, including support for Obama; he hosted an Obama golf event.
- He met President Trump at the White House after the Astros’ 2017 World Series, which is a ceremonial visit, not a donation record.
Billionaire sports owners often give to both parties or to industry PACs. Crane’s documented recent federal giving tilts Democrat, not toward Trump or MAGA committees. FEC records can miss some LLC/PAC routing, but nothing public puts him in the Trump-donor category used for the 2024 race.
Bottom line: Pilot identities, 21 Air’s Amazon contract and rapid growth after taking Atlas-related 767s, Crane ownership, and the FAA 757/767 experience petition check out. The crash itself remains an open NTSB investigation.