A Boeing jetliner with 143 people aboard from the
US outpost at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, slid off a
runway into a shallow river in Jacksonville, Florida,
on Friday while attempting to land at a military
base there during a thunderstorm, injuring 21
people.


According to NDTV, there were no reports of
fatalities or critical injuries, with the Jacksonville
Sheriff's Office saying on Twitter that all 21 of the
injured were taken to a hospital where they were
listed in good condition.

The plane, a chartered Boeing 737-800 arrived from
Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with 136
passengers and seven crew members, but it
crashed into the St Johns river at the end of the
runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville at about
9:40 pm local time, a spokesman for the Florida air
base said.

"The plane was not submerged. Every person is
alive and accounted for," the sheriff's office said
on Twitter.

The sheriff's tweet was accompanied by two
photographs showing the plane, bearing the logo of
Miami Air International, resting in shallow water and
fully intact.

The head of Boeing used his first shareholder
meeting after the fleet of 737 MAX was grounded
to try to assure shareholders, airline passengers,
and the media that the plane is safe.

"No fatalities reported. We are all in this together,"
Curry said in a separate tweet.


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."


Bormann said she hit her head on a plastic tray on
the seat in front of her as the plane veered
sideways and off the runway. "We were in the
water, we couldn't tell where we were, whether it
was a river or an ocean."

The military base is situated on the western bank
of the St Johns River about 8 miles south of
central Jacksonville, in the northeastern corner of
Florida about 350 miles north of Miami.

Bormann described emerging from the plane onto
the wing as oxygen masks deployed and smelling
the jet fuel that she said was apparently leaking
into the water.

Bormann, from Chicago, said that most of the
passengers were connected to the military and
helped each other out of their seats and onto a
wing, where they were assisted after some time
into a raft.

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 groundedt
following two fatal crashes involving that plane.


A Boeing spokesman said that the company was
aware of the incident and was gathering
information.

https://www.euronews.com/2019/05/04/boeing-737-skids-off-runaway-into-florida-river


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HLQQBSLdtQ