(CNN) A Boeing 737 plane arriving from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba went off the runway into the St. Johns River in Florida on Friday night, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said.

"I've been briefed that all lives have been accounted for," the mayor tweeted.

The plane is in shallow water and not submerged, and everyone is alive, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said.

The plane slid off a runway into the St. Johns River at 9:40 p.m. ET, a spokesman from the Naval Air Station Jacksonville said. It appears to have skidded off the airport runway while trying to land and ended up in the river, CNN affiliate WJXT reported.

The plane was arriving "from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into Naval Air Station Jacksonville " and crashed into the river at the end of the runway, Naval Air Station Jacksonville

Read More</s>(Reuters) - A team of 16 federal investigators was traveling to Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday 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 U.S. 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, authorities said.

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.

The plane, chartered from Miami Air International, was attempting to land at about 9:40 p.m. local time 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 8 miles (12.87 km) south of central Jacksonville, about 350 miles (563.27 km) 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 Co. said that the company was aware of the incident and was gathering information.

The charter company is contracted by the military for its twice-weekly “rotator” roundtrip service between the U.S. 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.</s>A Boeing 737 plane arriving from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba went off the runway into the St. Johns River in Florida on Friday night, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said.

“I’ve been briefed that all lives have been accounted for,” the mayor tweeted.

A spokesman from the Naval Air Station Jacksonville said it slid off a runway into the St. Johns River at 9:40 p.m. ET. The station told CNN affiliate WJXT that the plane appears to have skidded off the airport runway while trying to land and ended up in the river.

The station said the plane was arriving “from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into Naval Air Station Jacksonville ” and crashed into the river at the end of the runway.

“Navy security and emergency response personnel are on the scene and monitoring the situation,” the station said.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet the plane was in “shallow water,” and was “not submerged.“

The sheriff’s office also said “every person is alive.“

Curry said fire and rescue crews were on the scene. “While they work please pray,” he wrote.

President Donald Trump called to offer help as the situation was developing, the mayor said.</s>A Miami Air International Boeing 737-800 has skidded on landing at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Florida, and plunged into the St. Johns River according to Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.

According to CNN, Mayor Curry tweeted that all 142 aboard had been accounted for.

CNN reported that “a spokesman from the Naval Air Station Jacksonville said a Boeing 737 slid off of a runway into the St Johns River at 9:40 pm ET.
• Read more on the 737 MAX crashes here

The station told CNN affiliate WJXT that the plane appeared to have skidded off the airport runway while trying to land and ended up in the river.”

The 737-800 took off at 7.14pm from Guantanamo and landed at 9.41pm.

Flight distance was 1316km and the flight time two hours and 28 minutes.

The 737 is registered N732MA and was delivered to Miami Air International in April 2001.

MAI is a small charter airline with four 737s.

More to come.</s>Boeing 737 Plane With 143 On Board Skids Into St. Johns River In Jacksonville

Updated Saturday at 3:20 a.m. ET.

A Boeing 737 aircraft arriving at the naval air station in Jacksonville, Fla., from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, skidded into the St. Johns River on Friday night.

All 136 passengers and seven flight crew members on board are alive and accounted for, officials at Naval Air Station Jacksonville said in a statement. Twenty-one adults were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries reported.

"Non-critical status is what we had of the 21 individuals transported [to local hospitals]," Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department spokesman Tom Francis said.

During a news conference, Capt. Michael P. Connor, the commanding officer at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, said that passengers were a mix of civilians and military personnel, the Associated Press reports.

"I think it is a miracle," Connor said. "We could be talking about a different story."

Connor said crews began working to contain any jet fuel leaks after securing the passengers' safety, according to the AP.

The plane, which went off the runway at 9:40 p.m. ET, was in "shallow water" and "not submerged," the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said on Twitter.

Navy security and emergency response personnel are on the scene, and an investigation into the accident is underway, the Navy's statement said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is heading to Jacksonville to try to determine what went wrong.

Boeing also said it was investigating the incident.

"We are aware of an incident in Jacksonville, Fla. and are gathering information," Boeing said in a tweet.

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry posted updates on Twitter. He said the White House called to help as the situation unfolded.

Officials did not immediately say what caused the plane to leave the runway.

This is a developing story. Details may change as more information becomes available.</s>Two injured after Boeing 737 skids off Jacksonville runway into water

JACKSONVILLE, FL - A Department of Defense plane from Guantanamo Bay skidded off a runway into shallow water late Friday.

"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."

Authorities also said teams were working to control jet fuel which had leaked into the water. The plane skidded off the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

The FAA says two people received minor injuries.</s>A Boeing 737 arriving at the naval air station in Jacksonville, Fla., from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, skidded into the St. Johns River on Friday night.

All 136 passengers and seven flight crew members on board are alive and accounted for, officials at Naval Air Station Jacksonville said in a statement. Twenty-one adults were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries reported.

"Non-critical status is what we had of the 21 individuals transported [to local hospitals]," Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department spokesman Tom Francis said.

The plane, which went off the runway at 9:40 p.m. ET, was in "shallow water" and "not submerged," the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said on Twitter.

Navy security and emergency response personnel are on the scene, and an investigation into the accident is underway, the Navy's statement said.

Boeing also said it was investigating the incident.

"We are aware of an incident in Jacksonville, Fla. and are gathering information," Boeing said in a tweet.

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry posted updates on Twitter. He said the White House called to help as the situation unfolded.

Officials did not immediately say what caused the plane to leave the runway.

This is a developing story. Details may change as more information becomes available.</s>(Reuters) - A Boeing jetliner with 143 people aboard from the U.S. 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.

There were no reports of fatalities or critical injuries. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said 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 arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with 136 passengers and seven crew members, crashed into the St. Johns river at the end of the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville at about 9:40 p.m. 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 mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, said on Twitter that U.S. President Donald Trump had called him to offer help.

“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 grounded following two fatal crashes involving that plane. Representatives for the airline could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters on Friday evening.

The charter company is contracted by the military for its twice-weekly “rotator” roundtrip service between the U.S. 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, he said.

The rotator service typically flies military personnel, family members, contractors and other civilians traveling from the United States to Guantanamo Bay. But officials said the mix of civilians and military personnel on the plane that crash-landed was not immediately known.

A Boeing spokesman said that the company was aware of the incident and was gathering information.</s>A chartered Boeing 737 jetliner with 143 people on board slid off a runway and into the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday while attempting to land at a military base in a thunderstorm, injuring 21 people.

There were no reports of fatalities or critical injuries. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said on Twitter that all 21 people who had been taken to a hospital for treatment were listed in good condition.

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

"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, which bears the logo of Miami Air International, resting in shallow water and fully intact.

The mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, said on Twitter that U.S. President Donald Trump had called him to offer help.

"No fatalities reported. We are all in this together. Absorb that," 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."

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.</s>Federal investigators on Saturday (May 4) began searching for what caused a Boeing jetliner with 143 people on board to slide off a runway into a shallow river while landing at a Jacksonville, Florida, military base during a thunderstorm, injuring 22 people.

The Boeing 737-800 chartered by the U.S. 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 9,000-foot runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville on Friday night, authorities said.

Officials raised the count of people injured to 22, from 21, after a three-month-old child was admitted to a local hospital for observation, Captain Michael Connor, commanding officer at the Jacksonville station, told a news conference.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have recovered an undamaged flight data recorder and it has been sent to Washington for analysis, NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said at the news conference.

"We expect to get a very full report on that shortly," he said.

Investigators said they are hoping to interview the crew on Sunday.

The cockpit voice recorder is in the tail of the plane and submerged underwater. Investigators will not be able to recover it until the aircraft is lifted out of the water, Landsberg said.

"We are going to be very careful in preserving the perishable evidence," he said.

Officials were determining the best way to remove the plane from the water, NTSB investigator in charge John Lovell said.

"There are some ideas being floated in terms of putting some sort of cushioning below it ... and moving it on those cushions," he said.

The U.S. Coast Guard placed floating booms around the jetliner to contain leaking jet fuel in the water, Landsberg said.

The plane, chartered from Miami Air International, was attempting to land at about 9:40 p.m. local time 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.

Landsberg said investigators will look closely at whether the weather played a role in the incident.

"It is a miracle. We could be talking about a different story," Connor said early on Saturday.

Active duty military members, civilian government employees and their dependents were on the jetliner, Connor told CNN.

The military base is on the western bank of the St. Johns River about 8 miles (12.87 km) south of central Jacksonville, about 350 miles (563.27 km) 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 Co said that the company was aware of the incident and gathering information.

The charter company is contracted by the military for its twice-weekly "rotator" round-trip service between the U.S. mainland and Guantanamo Bay, said Bill Dougherty, a spokesman for the Jacksonville base.
A Boeing 737 arriving at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida slides off the runway into the St. Johns River. All on board survive.