A hot mic caught an awkward exchange about who would speak first at a press conference after an Amazon Prime plane crashed at Miami Airport.
Last Sunday, five people died, and five people were injured after an Amazon Boeing 767 plane overshot the runway at Miami International Airport and burst into flames.
The cargo plane departed Puerto Rico and crashed as it landed at Miami International Airport around 2 pm ET.
The plane hit vehicles, forcing a ground stop.
Federal officials on Monday said all five people killed after an Amazon plane overran a runway in Miami were on the ground in a van.
The van struck by the plane had seven people in it, five of whom were killed.
The victims worked for a cleaning company.
A hot mic caught an exchange between Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s chief of staff, Chris Hudtwalcker.
“The mayor is responsible for the airport, so I think she should speak first,” Chris Hudtwalcker said.
The sheriff responded: “I know what you believe. This is public safety, and I’m going first.”
On Friday, the Sheriff sent a letter to the Mayor.
Via NBC Miami:
In Friday’s interview with NBC6, the sheriff did not clarify why she jumped the order previously announced.
The exchange, which some argue shows the ongoing rift between the mayor and the sheriff, went viral, and prompted the sheriff to write a letter to Levine Cava.
“As the Sheriff’s Office prepared to brief the media at the scene, with media cameras rolling, someone from your staff moved in front of me at the podium and insisted that I yield the briefing to you because you oversee the airport,” Cordero-Stutz wrote in part. “… I am writing so that we agree, going forward, on where authority rests at an incident scene, so that no one on either of our staffs has to guess.”
In the letter, the sheriff insists that “the person who briefs the public first at such a scene is the officer responsible for it.”
She went on to point to what in her view was the reason for the awkward moment.
“When the County had a police department, its director reported to the Mayor. The department was operationally accountable to your administration, and your staff could give its director direction,” she wrote. “That arrangement ended on January 7, 2025, when the voters’ constitutional decision took effect and the Miami-Dade Police Department became the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.”
In her response, the mayor disagreed.
“I want to be clear: This incident went well beyond a fire rescue and local law enforcement response. A commercial aircraft overran a County airport runway, crossed a public road and struck a vehicle, killing five people and injuring five others… All airport runways were shut down for an extended period on a holiday weekend, impacting tens of thousands of passengers. A significant fuel leak raised environmental concerns and required and extended response that continued into the night,” she said.
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