Five airport cleaning crew members were killed at Miami International Airport when an Amazon cargo plane slammed into their van just as they were finishing an eight-hour shift servicing aircraft, attorneys for one of the victims said Wednesday.
Two additional workers who were inside the Econoline van remained hospitalized for several days after the vehicle was crushed by the fast-moving jet. Investigators have said the aircraft appeared to be attempting to abort or rethink its Sunday landing before it ran out of runway.
One of the men killed, 53-year-old Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, had emigrated from Cuba to the United States in 2011 and spent the past 14 years working multiple jobs to support his family, according to attorney Jorge Garcia. Garcia, a friend of Naranjo’s family, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on their behalf against Amazon, 21 Air—the company operating the aircraft—and the pilots.
Naranjo had been working a 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift for Professional Ocean Service Corp. When he failed to return home on schedule, his wife began sending increasingly frantic text messages. After noticing that none of the messages had been read, she came across a news report about the airport crash, Garcia said.
Garcia described Naranjo during an online news conference as “a very hardworking man” who was deeply loved by his wife and son, adding that the grief his family is now facing is “really unimaginable.”
Killed along with Naranjo were Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
Ridoel Averhoff Diaz, 32, and Roosevelt Sebastian Perdomo Torres, 36, survived the crash but remained in the hospital in critical condition Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said.
Professional Ocean Service Corp. has been cleaning planes at the Miami International Airport for at least 15 years.
“Our employees are far more than the people who work beside us each day, they are family, and they are deeply loved,” the company said in a statement after the crash.
The company cleans and disinfects the inside and outside of both private and commercial jets. Its workers can clean and replace carpet and paint cabins too, according to photos from its website.
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Typical airplane cleaning crews lug mops, brooms and other cleaning supplies up and down stairs, reach their hands into seat backs and have to move fast.
“They’re in a van. They get rushed to the airplane and are standing by on the jetway when the airplane arrives. The minute the passengers are off, their foreman is rushing them to get into that airplane to grab every piece of trash, do a wipe down of the bathrooms and countertops, and get the heck out of there,” said Soma Priddle, a retired commercial airline captain and attorney who represents pilots and other aviation workers.
Inside a plane, workers can be exposed to harsh cleaners as well as bodily fluids and other contaminants left by passengers. Outside the plane there is hydraulic fluid, jet fuel and de-icing fluids, she said.
Turnaround time for planes is tight, and if a company can’t meet deadlines they won’t keep cleaning contracts for long, Priddle said.
“It’s a god-awful job,” she said. “They work long hours. They’re just pushed and pushed and pushed.”
Workers typically have little experience and make close to minimum wage with no benefits, said Manny Pastreich, president of 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents more than 20,000 airport workers along the East Coast.
“It’s an incredibly hard job and not as well compensated as it should be,” said Pastreich, whose union did not represent the workers killed in Miami.
A report by the union this year focused on Charlotte Douglas International Airport found a shortage of workers left crews feeling rushed and that more than half of them had been at the airport for a year or less.
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