MIAMI — The Sunday before Labor Day was supposed to be a typical one for Duviel Aleman and his father, Rolando Aleman. They would both go to work for Professional Ocean Service Corp, cleaning airplanes at Miami International Airport. A van would ferry them to the jobs.

But Duviel was recovering from appendicitis, and was ordered by his doctor to take a day off. So, he stayed home.

He never saw his father again.

On Sept. 6, a Boeing 767 Amazon cargo plane crashed at MIA after it overshot a runway, hit vehicles including the cleaning company’s van, and caught fire. Five people were killed, including Rolando Aleman, and several were injured. The pilot and co-pilot survived. The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate.

On Thursday, attorneys for Duviel and his sister Aylen Aleman unveiled a lawsuit filed against multiple companies including 21 Air, the plane operator; Jim Crane, that company’s controller and also owner of the Houston Astros; Amazon.com; Amazon Air; Amazon Logistics; Titan Aviation Leasing; pilot Joseph Carroll and co-pilot Jaime Felipe Silva Molina. None of the parties were immediately available to provide comment.

Amazon issued a statement after the crash.

“After the tragic incident last weekend, we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a Sept. 13 statement. That led to the decision to suspend work with 21 Air.

“We’ll continue working to support the investigation and everyone affected,” Nantel said.

The lawsuit on behalf of the Aleman family is for wrongful death and alleges negligence on the part of several parties.

“There are so many aviation errors that took place,” Judd Rosen, lead attorney in the case and partner with Goldberg & Rosen, said in a briefing on Thursday at the firm’s office in downtown Miami.

The complaint alleges that 21 Air is a company with a known history of safety problems.

“And then you’ve got the largest distributor of goods in the universe and in the history of the world in Amazon,” Rosen said.

“If we can connect the dots and show that Amazon is involved with the contractor in a way that they control them, then they need to be responsible for them.”

The goal of the lawsuit, the plaintiff’s attorney said, is to bring accountability to the tragic incident.

Almost three weeks since the crash, “and to this day, no one has accepted any responsibility for what happened,” Rosen said. “There’s been no one admitting to any type of error.”

The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Sept. 11, alleges: “For years before the crash, 21 Air had been warned by its own pilots, its former chief pilot, and an outside safety consultant that it was operating with a suppressed safety culture, exhausted crews, and aircraft carrying known defects.”

It noted that “safety reports were buried at the direction of senior management.” And it says, “None of this was hidden from Amazon or from the owners of the aircraft.”

Duviel and his father arrived in Miami from Cuba about 10 years ago, “hoping for a better future,” the son said on Thursday.

“He was a beautiful person,” said Duviel, fighting back tears. “Anytime I called him to say I have a problem, he was there immediately offering to help.”

They spent Father’s Days together and the birthdays of Duviel’s two children. Rolando was a doting grandfather.

Now Duviel grapples with survivor’s guilt. He sees pictures of the Ford Ecoline van and knows where he would have likely been seated.

“That really compounds the loss,” Rosen said. “It’s an important aspect of our case.”

Aylen Aleman, Rolando’s daughter, lives in Brazil. She couldn’t get to the United States to mourn her father together with her brother.

On Zoom, Aylen described her father as “virtually the center of my life” at Thursday’s briefing.

“My life has been paralyzed.”

In addition to Rolando Aleman, the others killed were Julio Cesar Pineda Amiot, Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, Carlos Acosta Fajardo and Javierk Reyes Quevedo.

Several other lawsuits have been filed.

The family of Julio Cesar Pineda Amiot, 75 and a great-grandfather when he died, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court and hired Coral Gables firm Padron & Lopez-Trigo.

The widow of the driver of the van filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Sept. 9, alleging negligence against several companies and the pilots.

Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53, was driving the cleaning company’s van when the Boeing 767 ran off the runway and struck his vehicle.

His widow, Yaraisi Santiso Morejon, who also represents Rodriguez’s estate in the lawsuit, alleges that negligence contributed to her husband’s death and that the incident was avoidable. The couple came to Miami from Cuba in 2011. Both worked multiple jobs. They have a 20-year-old son.

That lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, lists the defendants as Amazon.com Inc.; Amazon Air Cargo; 21 Air; Avia Acquisition; Avia Investments; Andromeda Leasing II; Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc.; Titan Aviation Leasing Limited; Joseph Carroll and Jamie Felipe Silva Molina.

The incident was “a very preventable tragedy,” Mike Morgan, of Morgan & Morgan and one of Morejon’s attorneys, said at a briefing Sept. 9.

Duviel Aleman and Aylen agree. The daughter said on Thursday, “I want justice.”

Duviel was asked Thursday how he felt knowing he easily could have been killed. He’s devastated and struggling, as expected, but said, “initially I felt bad.” But he then took comfort from the support he got from his wife and children, and said, “I decided I’d try to move forward.”

And his family helped him realize that “my father would have wanted me here,” at a law firm seeking justice.

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