Cargo Jet Crashes Into Miami Business Area, Killing 4 Hundreds On Ground Flee In Terror, Escape Injury From Flying Parts, Fire

A cargo plane plunged into a heavily populated commercial area moments after takeoff from Miami International Airport Thursday, killing its four crew members but sparing hundreds of people on the ground, many of whom fled in terror as the DC-8 jet skidded across an eight-lane street before coming to rest in a shopping mall parking lot.

Witnesses said the plane shot “up like a rocket” seconds after takeoff, then crashed into a field, where it spewed flames and parts as it rammed through a wire fence and glided across the busy thoroughfare.

“There was an explosion and then a ball of fire,” said Jorge Capote, 39, one of about two dozen striking United Parcel Service employees who watched the disaster unfold from their posts on the picket line a block away.

“People were running everywhere,” added UPS driver Carlos Rivera, 50, who said the plane “went straight up and then dropped like a helicopter.”

The victims included the pilot, co-pilot, engineer and a security guard employed by the company whose cargo was being transported.

The plane, owned by Fine Air Services, was carrying about 80,000 pounds of goods, primarily textiles that were bound for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Metro-Dade police said there were no toxic materials on board.

The only injuries to people on the ground, according to police Lt. Linda O’Brien, were two customers of one of the nearby stores, who were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

The shops, mostly small wholesalers and retailers, were evacuated. One report said firefighters were concerned that the burning rubble could set off a gas line that runs beneath the street.

The crash site is in the heart of metropolitan Miami’s largest employment area, the fast-growing West Dade section that begins at the airport and extends westward to the Everglades.

Although it was lunch hour, there were no cars or pedestrians in the path of the plane as it careened into the parking lot, sending workers in the shops and warehouses screaming into the street.

“I looked to my left and this plane’s coming at me,” said one unidentified woman, in a comment typical of many who narrowly escaped disaster.

Hours after the crash, the wreckage continued to smolder as scores of firefighters worked to clean up the debris.

Operations at Miami International were slowed for most of the afternoon, but had returned to near normal Thursday evening.

The accounts of witnesses describing the plane first bolting upward, wobbling and then sinking prompted speculation that the plane’s cargo may have shifted at takeoff, causing the tail to dip, but a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said it was too soon to speculate on a cause. Both of the plane’s flight data recorders were recovered, he said, and sent to Washington Thursday night for examination.