A team of 16 federal investigators is travelling to Jacksonville, Florida, after a Boeing jetliner with 143 people on board slid off a runway into a shallow river while trying to land at a military base during a thunderstorm, injuring 21 people.
The Boeing 737-800 chartered by the US military was arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with 136 passengers and seven crew members when it slid into the St Johns river at the end of the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
All passengers and crew are alive and accounted for. Source: AAP
No one was badly hurt and the 21 people taken to a hospital were listed in good condition, the local sheriff's office said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that 16 investigators were arriving in Jacksonville on Saturday.
"NTSB team has expertise in aircraft operations, structures, powerplants, human performance, weather, airports and other areas," the agency said, adding that it expects to brief the media later in the day.
'A miracle'
Dozens of shocked passengers who were evacuated to safety have shared their experiences.
"As we went down... the plane bounced and screeched and bounced more and lifted to the right and then it lifted to the left," Cheryl Bormann, a defense attorney who was on board the flight, told CNN.
"And then it sort of swerved and then it came to a complete crash stop."
A Miami Air International flight 293 passenger plane ran off the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. Source: AAP
Some oxygen masks deployed and overhead lockers flew open during the landing, she added.
Captain Michael Connor, commanding officer at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, told reporters it was a "miracle" no more serious injuries or fatalities had occurred.
"We could be talking about a different story this evening, so I think there's a lot to say about, you know, the professionalism of the folks that helped the passengers off the airplane... it very well could be worse," he said.
However, there were fears for a number of pet animals traveling in the plane's luggage compartment.
The pets had "not been retrieved yet due to safety issues with the aircraft," NAS Jacksonville said in an update on Facebook.
Efforts underway contain fuel spill
Meanwhile containment booms have been placed around the jet to minimise fuel from spilling into the waterway.
Associated Press journalists took a boat on Saturday to the spot and reported the chemical stench of oil and fuel is pungent.
The Boeing 737 is stuck in the riverbed, with the bottom of the fuselage under water and the plane's nose cone missing.
Captain Michael Connor, the base's commander, said they're doing everything to contain the fuel.
The plane, chartered from Miami Air International, was attempting to land at 9.40pm local time on Friday amid thunder and lightning when it slid off the runway and came to rest in the shallow water of the river, authorities and passengers said.
The military base is on the western bank of the St Johns River about 13km south of central Jacksonville, about 560km north of Miami.
Miami Air International is a charter airline operating a fleet of the Boeing 737-800, different from the 737 MAX 8 aircraft that has been grounded following two fatal crashes involving that plane.
Representatives of the airline did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
A spokesman for Boeing said the company was aware of the incident and was gathering information.
The charter company is contracted by the military for its twice-weekly "rotator" round-trip service between the US mainland and Guantanamo Bay, said Bill Dougherty, a spokesman for the Jacksonville base.
It flies every Tuesday and Friday from the Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia to the Jacksonville air station and on to Cuba. It then flies back to Virginia with a stop again at Jacksonville, Dougherty said.
