Associated Press HOUSTON — A Boeing 767 cargo jetliner heading to Houston with three people aboard disintegrated after crashing Saturday into a bay east of the city, according to a Texas sheriff. Witnesses told emergency personnel that the twin-engine plane “went in nose first,” leaving a debris field three-quarters of a mile long in Trinity Bay, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said. “It’s probably a crash that nobody would survive,” he said, referring to the scene as “total devastation.” The cargo plane made a steep descent shortly before 12:45 p.m. from 6,525 feet to 3,025 feet in 30 seconds, according to tracking data from FlightAware.com. The flight was being operated for Amazon by Atlas Air, according to a statement from the airline. “Our main priority at this time is caring for those affected and we will ensure we do all we can to support them now and in the days and weeks to come,” Atlas Air said in a statement. Dave Clark, senior vice president of Worldwide Operations at Amazon, said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the flight crew, their families and friends along with the entire team at Atlas Air during this terrible tragedy. We appreciate the first responders who worked urgently to provide support.” Witnesses said they heard the plane’s engines surging and that the craft turned sharply before falling into a nosedive, Hawthorne said. Aerial footage shows emergency personnel walking along a spit of marshland flecked by debris that extends into the water. Hawthorne told the Houston Chronicle late Saturday afternoon that police had found human remains at the site of the crash. Investigators have also recovered parts of the plane, he said. “There’s everything from cardboard boxes to women’s clothing and bed sheets,” Hawthorne said. The largest piece from the Boeing 767 that police have recovered is 50 feet long, Hawthorne told the newspaper. The sheriff said recovering pieces of the plane and its black box containing flight data records will be difficult in muddy marshland that extends to about 5 feet deep in the area. Air boats are needed to access the area. The plane had departed from Miami and was likely only minutes away from landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert after officials lost radar and radio contact with Atlas Air Flight 3591 when it was about 30 miles southeast of the airport, FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said. Air traffic controllers in Houston tried at least twice to contact the plane but received no response. After losing contact, they asked a United Airlines pilot if he had seen “ground contact” – wreckage – to his right or behind him, according to recordings of the conversation. “That’s a negative,” he said. They also asked a Mesa Airlines pilot: “See if you can make ground contact. We are looking for a lost aircraft … it’s a heavy Boeing 767,” meaning it’s a big, two-aisle plane. “No ground contact from here,” the Mesa pilot said. The Coast Guard dispatched boats and at least one helicopter to assist in the search for survivors. A dive team with the Texas Department of Public Safety will be tasked with finding the black box, Hawthorne said. Trinity Bay is just north of Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. FAA investigators are traveling to the scene as are authorities with the National Transportation Safety Board, which will lead the investigation.<doc-sep>Three crew members of a cargo plane operating for Amazon are feared dead after the Boeing 767 jet crashed into a bay near Houston on Saturday afternoon. The Amazon Air flight, operated by New York-based Atlas Air, was en route to from Miami to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport when it crashed into Trinity Bay near the Houston suburb of Anahuac at approximately 12:45 p.m. Central Time, Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration said on its Twitter feed that FAA investigators were en route to the scene, and that the National Transportation Safety Board would lead the investigation of the crash. #FAA statement regarding a twin-engine Boeing 767 cargo jetliner crash near Anahuac, TX today around 12:45 p.m. CT. pic.twitter.com/7x2f0wYwcG — The FAA (@FAANews) February 23, 2019 Related Articles Two bodies recovered after Amazon Air cargo plane crashes into Texas bay In a statement, Atlas Air confirmed that flight number 3591 went down near Anahuac, and that “there were three people on board the aircraft. Those people and their family members are our top priority at this time. Atlas Air is cooperating fully with the FAA and NTSB.” Dive teams were reported to be on the scene and had recovered human remains from the crash. “Knowing what I saw, I don’t believe anyone could have survive it,” said Chambers (Texas) County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne, according to the Houston Chronicle. Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said the company’s “thoughts and prayers are with the flight crew, their families and friends along with the entire team at Atlas Air during this terrible tragedy.”<doc-sep>The three people aboard the Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that crashed outside Houston have been confirmed dead, the plane's operator said Sunday. The Boeing 767 operated by Atlas Air was a scheduled cargo flight for Amazon from Miami to Houston on Saturday when it nosedived into a swampy area about 30 miles from George Bush Intercontinental Airport. "It is with great sadness that Atlas Air Worldwide has confirmed that the three people on board ... did not survive the accident," the company said in a Sunday afternoon statement. Atlas CEO Bill Flynn, who is at the crash site with other company representatives and federal, state and local investigators, said Atlas is setting up assistance programs for the family members of the those killed in the crash. Authorities have not yet released their names. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected,” Flynn said in a statement. "This is a sad time for all of us. Our team continues to work closely with the NTSB, the FAA and local authorities on the ground in Houston. We would like to commend the efforts of all of the first responders. We sincerely appreciate their efforts and support in the investigation." Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne on Saturday asked for anyone with video or pictures of the crash to submit them to investigators. Witnesses said they heard the plane’s engines surging and watched the craft turn sharply before falling into a nosedive, Hawthorne said. Federal investigators are helping local authorities search the wreckage for the plane's flight recorders, which could help explain the crash. Investigators say the crash left debris strewn across a wide area of Trinity Bay. AccuWeather meteorologists suggested weather could be to blame: "There were a few showers with gusty winds in the vicinity of Houston at the time of the crash. While an investigation needs to take place, these were around the area and could have been a factor in the crash," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alan Reppert said. Investigators say they're using a mix of boats and airboats to search the swampy, marshy area. People who worked nearby were among the first to reach the wreckage, KHOU-TV reported. “The whole reason for us going out there was to see if we could save anybody," boat mechanic Jason Campbell told the TV station. “There’s not much of a plane left to tell that it was actually an airplane. There’s packages, clothes, shoes, this stuff floating everywhere.”<doc-sep>
An Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 participating in the 2016 Boeing Seafair Air Show near Lake Washington, Seattle. Photo : Ted S. Warren ( AP ) An Atlas Air Boeing 767 cargo plane crashed in a bay near Anahuac, Texas on Saturday afternoon with three people on board, according to multiple media reports and the Federal Aviation Administration. The flight, which was contracted to fly cargo for Amazon Air (formerly Prime Air), went down while flying to Houston from Miami. The crash is presumed to have killed all on board. Flight 3591 lost radio contact with air traffic controllers some 30 miles to the southeast of Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where it was scheduled to land. KPRC-TV reported that the preliminary indication is that the plane went down at around 12:40 p.m. local time, around which time the FAA issued an Alert Notice and civilians began reporting the crash to authorities. According to CNBC, video from the scene of the crash in Trinity Bay appears to show wreckage with part of the Amazon logo on it floating in the water, with responding law enforcement reporting “items including bed sheets, women’s clothing and cardboard boxes in the bay.” Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne told media that he believes it is very unlikely anyone could have survived the impact. The region where it went down is marshy, he added, which will complicate relief efforts. “The problem that we’re gonna have, that everybody is gonna have in this recovery process, is that the water is goes from about five feet deep to zero,” Hawthorne said, according to KPRC. “And that zero feet deep is nothing but mud marsh.” “We haven’t been able to find any survivors or any remains,” the sheriff added. “I would say that the largest chunk of the plane that I could actually visually put my eyes on is probably not much larger than about 50 feet.” “We can confirm there were three people on board the aircraft. Those people and their family members are our top priority at this time,” Atlas Air told ABC 13 in a statement. “Atlas Air is cooperating fully with the FAA and NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board]. We will update as additional information becomes available.” Update: 2/24/2019: In a statement to media, Captain Daniel C. Wells, an Atlas Air captain and president of the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, wrote that members of the union working for Atlas were on board the flight. “Our union stands together as a family and in support of our members’ families,” Wells wrote. “ Our focus is on our friends and colleagues who were on that plane, and we are doing everything we can to support their families.” “Teamsters Local 1224 representatives are already on the ground supporting this investigation. We also thank the first responders who rushed to the scene to help.” [CNBC/KPRC-TV/ABC 13] Correction: A prior version of this article incorrectly identified Flight 3591 as a Boeing 737, rather than a Boeing 767. We regret the error.