Boeing 737 goes into Florida river with 136 on board, no fatalities

May 4: A Boeing 737 commercial jet with 136 people on board slid into the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida after landing on Friday, a spokesman for Naval Air Station Jacksonville said.

There were no reports of fatalities but local WOKV-TV that at least two people suffered minor injuries and that the plane was attempting to land during a heavy thunderstorm.

The flight arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay went into the river at the end of the runway at about 9:40 p.m. local time, the air station said.

The mayor of Jacksonville said on Twitter that everyone on board the flight was "alive and accounted for" but that crews were working to control jet fuel on the water.

Curry said in a separate tweet that US President Donald Trump had called him to offer help.

"The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for," the Jacksonville 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.

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."

Bormann described emerging from the plane onto the wing as oxygen masks deployed and smelling the jet fuel that she said was 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 Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Representatives for the airline could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters on Friday evening.

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