Daijiworld Media Network - Florida (SR)

Florida, May 4: Boeing 737 aircraft with 143 passengers and crew members on board skidded off a runway and landed in a river during a shocking landing attempt at an airport in Jacksonville, Florida. 

At least 21 people were injured in the incident. All of the 136 passengers and seven crew members had been rescued by early Saturday morning, a Navy spokeswoman said. None of the injuries were life-threatening, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, As per IANS report.

The Naval Air Station Jacksonville said the military-chartered Miami Air International plane was trying to land in a thunderstorm at the naval air station in Jacksonville en route from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba at around 9.40 pm local time when it slid off the runway into the St Johns river.

Officials said the 136 passengers and seven crew were alive and accounted for after the plane alighted in shallow water.

The mayor of Jacksonville said on Twitter, “The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for.”

A passenger on board the plane, lawyer 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 amidst thunder and lightning.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to start an inquiry. Boeing said it also was investigating, but did not provide any other details.

Friday night's accident comes as Boeing has been under intense scrutiny following two deadly crashes of its 737 MAX jet within months of each other: Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March of this year.