Transcript of Miami Plane Crash, Witkoff & Kushner Visit Ukraine, Far-Right AfD Wins In Germany

Investigators are looking at what caused an Amazon cargo plane to crash at Miami International Airport.

5 people are dead and 5 others are injured after the plane overran the runway and smashed into multiple vehicles.

I'm Leila Fadel, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff went to Kyiv for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion. They arrived from Moscow and said they want peace talks to restart.

I think if we can achieve that, it'd be an incredible thing.

Their presence brought a rare break from Russian attacks.

And Germany's far-right party won by a landslide in a regional election. The AfD party campaigned on mass deportations. Its win could open the door to Germany's first far-right local government since the Nazis. Stay with us, we'll give you news you need to start your day. Authorities in Florida are investigating a plane crash in Miami that killed 5 people on Sunday.

An Amazon Prime cargo plane was landing at Miami International Airport around 2 p.m. Eastern when it overran the runway, crashed and rammed into vehicles on the ground. 5 people were injured as well. It's not yet clear how many of the people killed or hurt were on board the plane or on the ground. Amazon says the plane was operated by 21 Air, a contract cargo carrier.

NPR's Arzu Razvani has been following the story, and she's with us now to tell us more about it. Good morning, Arzu.

Hey, Michelle.

So investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board have started arriving in Miami. What are they going to be looking at to try to figure out what caused this crash?

They'll be looking at everything from possible mechanical failure to environmental variables to flight crew performance. I spoke with Peter Goelz last night. He's the former managing director of the NTSB. He's now a transportation safety consultant, and he explained to me how this usually goes.

They'll listen to the cockpit voice recorder to make sure that the pilots were following their checklists, were aware of the extenuating circumstances. They will look at the data recorder, which will tell them how fast the plane was going, when it touched down, what sort of braking action was applied by the crew.

Another detail investigators will likely examine are thunderstorms and winds that were directly over the airport at the time of the crash. Weather conditions are often a reason to delay or avoid a landing, but it's still a little too early to tell if weather was a key factor in this crash.

Okay. And do I have this right, that it's usually a combination of factors that causes plane crashes?

Yes, that's right. And that's a big reason why these investigations are so extensive and take so much time. It's typically a series of cascading factors that contribute to any crash.

But how unusual is it for a plane to overrun the runway?

Well, it's enough of a concern that for the last couple of decades, many airports, particularly those with shorter runways, have set up an engineered materials arresting system, or EMAS, which is basically this crushable material placed at the end of a runway designed to help stop a plane that overruns the runway. These systems are not mandated by the FAA, and Miami International Airport doesn't have that in place because the runways there are pretty long, which is why this crash at this particular airport is a bit curious.

And this was Amazon plane that was operated by a contract cargo carrier. Could that figure into the investigation?

Yeah, you know, this is something that also caught the attention of Goltz, the former NTSB director, and he thinks investigators will examine that corporate relationship that put this plane in the air to see, you know, who was responsible for flight crew training, who was responsible for maintenance. So I think as this investigation goes on, that will be a space to watch.

And this crash happened on Labor Day weekend, which is one of the busiest travel periods. Did it affect other flights?

It certainly did on Sunday. All runways and taxiways at Miami International were closed for several hours. That caused massive delays and cancellations, and that of course meant long lines at the airport with passengers rebooking flights, which in some cases kept getting canceled. It's unclear how much of that will continue today, but the airport's website says 2 of the 4 runways are back open now.

That is— and Paris Arzu-Razvani, Arzu, thank you.

You're welcome.

President Trump's envoys went to Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, for the first official visit during wartime.

Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff came right from Moscow. They said they want peace talks to restart. The visit did not produce a breakthrough, but it gave Ukrainians in Kyiv a reprieve from near-constant Russian attacks.

Joining us now to talk about all this is NPR's Joanna Kakissis, who is in Kyiv. Joanna, good morning.

Good morning, Michelle.

So you were at the press conference with Kushner, Witkoff, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. What did they say?

So all 3 men said the talks were substantive and new ideas had been presented, but they didn't offer any details about these ideas, even when reporters pressed them. Now, the men were seated on this stage outside the ornate presidential palace in Kyiv under rainy and gray skies. Jared Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law, said President Trump wants to end the war as soon as possible. A Ukrainian journalist asked you know, could this happen as early as this winter? And Kushner said he wants to try.

I think if we can achieve that, it'd be an incredible thing. It doesn't mean that we'll— we will achieve it, but it's a— it's a— it's an effort that's very important to try.

Zelensky looked really skeptical as Kushner said this, and he told reporters afterwards that he expects Russia to continue the war. And because Ukraine is facing another brutal winter with more Russian airstrikes on its energy grid expected, Zelensky says he is pushing for aid that includes more air defense supplies. Joanna, can you just remind us of why peace talks have Yeah, well, you know, the White House, which has sponsored these talks, has been occupied with Iran since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February. However, a member of Ukraine's negotiating team told me that the Ukrainians actually never stopped communicating with Trump's team and even occasionally with Russian representatives.

Did this help at all?

Well, actually, no, not really, because the 2 sides remain so far apart on crucial issues. For example, consider the very sensitive issue of territory. Russia has pushed for Ukraine to give up land it still controls in exchange for a peace deal. Public opinion polls say that most Ukrainians strongly oppose this. Now, Zelenskyy said he did discuss the territory issue with Kushner and Witkoff. And he's saying something this sensitive can only be handled by leaders— himself, Vladimir Putin, with maybe Trump and the Europeans also involved.

But what did this visit mean for Zelenskyy and for Ukrainians in general?

Yeah, well, Michelle, for Zelensky, the symbolism of just seeing Trump's envoys in Kyiv mattered. Remember, this is their first-ever wartime trip to Ukraine, and they have visited Moscow several times. So the war has closed Ukrainian airspace. They traveled to Kyiv on a train dubbed the Peace Express. Whitkopf told everybody that he loved it.

It reminded me of my days taking the train to see my grandmother down to Florida, and it was great.

And what was also great, Zelensky said, is that having Trump's most trusted representatives in Kyiv meant Russia would not dare bomb the city. Зелेंский говорит, Кушнер и Утков визитинг Кевы дед со много более чем любое патриотный систем для защиты города. Он сказал, пожалуйста, kommen Sie öfter, чтобы люди живут немного.

Это НПО журналист Джорна Кекисис в Кевы, Украинской capital. Joanna, thank you.

You're welcome.

In Germany, the far-right anti-immigration party has won a landslide victory in a state election.

Alternative for Germany, or AfD's, win has caused a political earthquake in Germany. According to preliminary results, AfD fell short of an outright majority on Sunday, but if it does form a governing coalition, It would be the first far-right regional government in the country since Nazi Germany.

NPR's Esme Nicholson is in Berlin with more on this. Good morning, Esme.

Good morning, Michelle.

So how did AfD pull this off?

This is a question that Germany's rather shell-shocked ruling center-right Christian Democratic Union Party, or the CDU, is certainly asking itself this morning. The vote took place in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, and the CDU there got just 17%, while the AfD more than doubled its share from the last election to 43%. I think the AfD can really thank its candidate, a man called Ulrich Siegmund. The 35-year-old is a former marketing man and salesman, and it shows, not least on TikTok, where throughout the campaign he posted feel-good videos and promised to, quote, bring back the good old Germany. He stands out even within his own party because he is uncharacteristically upbeat, but This does not make him moderate by any means. In fact, Germany's domestic intelligence classifies the AfD as extremist in Saxony-Anhalt, and its platform there is the party's most radical.

Well, tell us more about that. Like, what does this party want, and what would an AfD-led regional government actually look like?

Well, right at the top of the agenda is what the AfD calls its remigration policy, which promises mass deportations. Last night, Sigmund actually spelled out the policy in more detail to public Remigration is far more than just deportation and that it applies to anyone who does not contribute to society. He included here Ukrainian refugees without jobs. The AfD also wants to segregate refugees and disabled children in schools and revamp the curriculum to focus on a more positive teaching of Germany's history. It is also promising to dismantle the region's public broadcaster. And all this and is seen as the AfD's blueprint for the rest of Germany.

So whether it secures enough votes to govern or not, what does last night's win mean for Germany as a whole?

Well, first of all, if Siegmund does end up as state governor, he will be privy to foreign and domestic intelligence, which is a major concern considering the AfD's rather cozy relations with Russia. And there is already talk of Germany's other 15 states preparing to meet separately. Politically, this is a disaster. For Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who came to power vowing to halve the number of AfD voters, but last night his Conservatives halved their own share of the vote. Merz has responded today expressing shock at the result, but he has also sought to reassure Ukraine that the AfD's state election victory will not change the federal government's support for Kyiv. Finally, beyond Germany, President Donald Trump posted the results on Truth Social, which the Kremlin has reposted, calling it an historic win.

That is NPR's Esme Nicholson in Berlin. Esme, thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

This week on The Sunday Story, we have new developments in sunscreen research. You count on sunscreen to protect your skin, but that SPF rating on the bottle might not be exactly as advertised.

We know from, you know, various different studies and reports that the— there's like this issue of inconsistent testing. So you could measure an SPF 50 at one lab and an SPF 30 at another.

On the Sunday story from Up First, why sunscreen guidance might be changing. Listen now on the NPR app. And that's Up First for Monday, September 7th. I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Leila Fadel. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Tina Craya, Mohammad Al-Bardisi, and Lindsay Totty. It was produced by Ziad Budj and Julie Deppenbrock. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes and Robert Rodriguez. And our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.