A US Department of Defense Boeing 737 plane from Guantanamo Bay skidded off a runway into shallow water in Jacksonville, Florida, late Friday, but officials said there were no serious injuries.
ABC News reports that there were 136 passengers and seven crew on board the plane, which was headed for the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. The passengers were a mix of civilian and military personnel.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue said 21 passengers were transported to the hospital, all in good condition. There were two “very minor” injuries, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
“At approximately 9:40 p.m. today, a Boeing 737 arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into Naval Air Station Jacksonville crashed into the St. Johns River at the end of the runway,” Naval Air Station Jacksonville said in a statement.
“Navy security and emergency response personnel are on the scene and monitoring the situation.”
The mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, earlier tweeted it was a commercial plane, but it was actually a 737 contracted by the Department of Defense. He later said “all lives have been accounted for.”
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Authorities also said teams were working to control jet fuel which had leaked into the water.
The plane skidded off one of two runways at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. The base specializes in anti-submarine warfare and training pilots. It is also home to Naval Hospital Jacksonville.
Captain Michael Connor, the commanding officer of Jacksonville’s Naval Air Station, said that while the crash certainly wasn’t ideal, he acknowledge it could have been much worse.
“I think it is a miracle,” he said.
“We could be talking about a different story this evening.
“I think there’s a lot to say about the professionalism of the folks that helped the passengers off the aeroplane.
“It very well could [have been] worse.”
A passenger on board the plane, attorney Cheryl Bormann, told CNN in an interview that the flight, which had been four hours late in departing, made a “really hard landing” in Jacksonville amid thunder and lightning.
“We came down, the plane literally hit the ground and bounced, it was clear the pilot did not have total control of the plane, it bounced again,” she said, adding that the experience was “terrifying.”
ABC News
