They worked for a company responsible for cleaning aircraft interiors
14ymedio, Madrid, September 9, 2026 / The five people killed in Sunday’s cargo plane accident in Miami were Cuban. The victims worked for the company Professional Ocean Service Corporation and were identified this Tuesday by Miami-Dade authorities as Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47; Rolando Alemán León, 55; Julio C. Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Yoel Rodríguez Naranjo, 53.
The US newspaper The New York Times confirmed that the first three were Cuban migrants, but a coworker stated on social media that the remaining two were as well. “All five were Cuban. They worked with me, and not just because they’re gone now, but they were good, hardworking people. I can vouch for that,” wrote Eduardo Sangster.
“They fled Cuba to build a better life in the United States. A cargo plane cut their lives short,” reads the headline of the New York – based outlet, which describes what the victims’ daily lives were like. “They collected trash and cleaned airplane seats at Miami’s airport to support their families, both in Florida and on their native island.” The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, elaborated on the tragedy. “This is certainly very tragic. You would never imagine something like this could happen while riding in a vehicle on your way to clean a plane. No one would think something like that could happen,” she said.
“They collected trash and cleaned airplane seats at Miami’s airport to support their families, both in Florida and on their native island”
Javierkys Reyes Quevedo arrived in Miami in 2019, coming from Guanabacoa, where he had worked tending horses. His job was essential for his family in Cuba, especially for his 69-year-old mother, who is hospitalized with hypertension and to whom he frequently sent medications and other basic necessities. The woman had already lost a son, 49, less than a year earlier. “She’s devastated,” Yusdany Pol Quevedo, the victim’s brother, told the NYT.
Reyes Quevedo had not returned to the island since he left eight years earlier, but he was about to make his first exception. He had saved up to attend his daughter’s fifteenth birthday this December. “It’s just so absurd,” his brother lamented.
Rolando Alemán León was also Cuban. He had spent a long time working at a hotel but decided to switch to plane cleaning because it paid better, according to Blanca Llauro, his former landlady, an elderly woman who had rented him a garage converted into an apartment in the north of Miami-Dade County, who spoke to the outlet. He had recently moved out of that home, and the plan was to settle down with his partner in a house they had bought in Tampa Bay.
María Pineda, Julio C. Pineda’s ex-wife, said he was a tireless worker. He arrived from Cuba in May 2001, and at 75 he was still hard at work to support his family. “He was always cheerful and always laughing,” she said in a text message to the NYT.
The outlet has not documented the origin of the two remaining victims, but several comments on social media confirm their Cuban nationality, including several accounts from close family of Carlos Acosta Fajardo, a resident of Havana. Police also revealed the identities of those hospitalized: Ridoel Averhoff Díaz, 32; Eugenio Corredor, 79; and Roosevelt Sebastian Perdomo Torres, 36. According to some outlets, the first of these, who is in critical condition, is also originally from Cuba, while the second is reported to be Colombian.
According to some media outlets, the first of these, who is in critical condition, is also originally from Cuba, while the second is reported to be Colombian
The pilots have been identified as Jaime Felipe Silva Molina, 37, born in Colombia, and Joseph Carol, 55. Both suffered only minor injuries and have already been released from the hospital.
The accident took place this past Sunday, when the Boeing 767-300 operated for Amazon by the company 21 Air was returning from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The aircraft ran off the runway at Miami International Airport, skidded across a grassy area, crossed a perimeter fence and a public road, and ended up crashing into the Professional Ocean Service Corporation van carrying the Cuban workers. The plane then came to a stop in a parking lot, also colliding with an SUV.
Janette Suárez, president of the company where the victims worked, wanted to pay tribute to the victims and to all employees who do work that goes “unnoticed and without due recognition.” “When you sit down on a plane, you don’t realize the work they do. They have lives. They are people: parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts.”
Translated by GH.
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