Fine Air Flight 101

Fine Air Flight 101 was a scheduled cargo flight from Miami International Airport to Las Américas International Airport, operated by Douglas DC-8 N27UA, that crashed almost immediately after take-off on August 7, 1997, when it failed to gain altitude. All four people on board and one person on the ground died in the mid-day Thursday crash.

Accident

The aircraft, bound for Santo Domingo, lost control shortly after takeoff from runway 27R (now 26R). The nose quickly pitched up into a stall, briefly recovered, but then entered another stall, impacting the ground and sliding at 12:36 pm EDT.

Exiting the west end of the airport property, the DC-8 missed the auto transport loading facility at the south end of the Miami City Rail Yard just north of the end of the runway, and also busy cargo operations facilities along the very busy NW 25th Street feeder to the airport's cargo area just to the south of the end of the runway. The aircraft barely missed two factories, a commercial building, and the Budweiser Distribution Center in unincorporated Dade County, Florida, between the populated residential suburbs of Miami Springs and Doral. It skidded across an open field and onto NW 72nd Ave, a roadway that is typically full of traffic during the weekday lunch hour and was full at the time of the accident, though the portion Flight 101 struck had red lights at both intersections. The plane's wreckage skidded quickly across the roadway and onto the parking lot of a commercial mini-mall across the street from the empty field; it hit 26 cars in the lot, and a major fire followed. At that time, the mini-mall was a hub of computer parts distributors specializing in South American commerce.

The plane's wreckage fell 4 ft short of the entrances to three shops, missing two occupied cars and a truck that was waiting for the traffic signal at the intersection of NW 31st Street and NW 72nd Avenue, less than 90 ft away. Inside one of the cars in the parking lot sat 34-year-old Renato Alvarez, who had just arrived back at his shop in the mini-mall after picking up lunch for his wife and himself. He was unable to escape the vehicle and was caught up in the fireball that engulfed the multi-lane avenue, field, and parking lot.

Five people were killed in total: the three aircrew members, a company security guard on the flight, and the man in the parking lot. In the minutes following the crash, police were alerted to a fire at NW 72nd Ave, only to discover it was a plane crash. For nearly 45 minutes, mixed reports claimed the plane was a passenger flight, but within the hour the control tower at MIA confirmed it was Fine Air Cargo Flight 101. FAA Security Special Agents working out of an office on airport property (at that time) responded to the scene and simultaneously to the Fine Air Cargo offices, where they took possession of the flight documentation. Some relevant documentation was recovered from garbage receptacles, causing a criminal investigation to be opened and ultimately leading to charges including destruction and covering-up of evidence. Fine Air and their ground-handling agent Aeromar Líneas Aéreas Dominicanas pleaded guilty to several of the charges and were fined approximately $5 million.