Boeing 737 slides into Florida river

World Saturday 04/May/2019 15:39 PM
By: Times News Service
Boeing 737 slides into Florida river

Miami: A Boeing 737 slid into a river in the US state of Florida after crash landing at a naval air-station with no fatalities recorded, according to authorities.

“There were 136 passengers and seven aircrew on board and all have been accounted for,” Naval Air Station Jacksonville said in a statement.

Twenty-one adults were taken to local hospitals, but none were critically injured, Jacksonville sheriff’s office said on Twitter.

Others were treated for minor injuries at the scene.

Navy security and emergency response personnel including some 90 firefighters attended the scene.

"We have a commercial plane down on the river," Lenny Curry, mayor of Jacksonville said, adding that first responders are at the scene and "all lives have been accounted for."

The flight slid off a runway into the St. Johns river at about 9.40pm local time (0140 GMT Saturday), according to a spokesman from the Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said in a tweet that the plane was in "shallow water" and was not "submerged".

The plane had flown from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.