Sunday’s Amazon plane crash almost destroyed a bunch of Elon Musk’s latest invention.
At least five people died, and five more were injured, after the Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 overshot the runway at Miami International Airport.
Images showed the airplane came to a halt next to a parking lot that appeared to contain a few dozen Tesla Cybercabs.
The gold-colored robotaxis have no steering wheel or pedals, and feature distinctive gold wheel hubs. Tesla officially launched the cabs in Austin last week to great fanfare.
The launch has prompted an inquiry from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to check that Tesla has followed all the rules.
On Sunday, when the Boeing 767 passed the end of the runway in Miami, it appeared to strike multiple vehicles but stopped short of the parking lot full of Cybercabs.
Tesla has not officially confirmed that it is testing or planning to roll out Cybercabs in Miami, but its robotaxis, which use modified Tesla Model Ys, have been available in the city since July. Teslarati, a Tesla blog, shared a photo of about 40 Cybercabs at Miami Airport three days before the crash.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, though Musk wrote “Weird” on X in response to a post from financial blog Zero Hedge about the presence of Cybercabs.
According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue radio transmissions recorded on Broadcastify, the plane crossed 67th Avenue, a nearby road, before it struck a truck.
“We have a patient trapped,” a first responder said, according to the recordings.
The airplane was operated by 21 Air, a charter firm, and had flown to Miami from Puerto Rico.
Weather data shows there were thunderstorms and gusting winds at the time of the crash.
It was not immediately clear on Sunday how many people were on the plane, and whether those killed were people on the ground.
This was the second 767 cargo plane to crash from Amazon’s Prime Air network. In 2019, an Atlas Air freighter flying on behalf of Amazon crashed into Trinity Bay near Houston, killing the three people on board.
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