Boeing plane skids into Florida river in crash-landing, no fatalities

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Europe

00:55

A Boeing 737 commercial jet with 143 people on board slid into the St. John's River near Jacksonville, Florida, while attempting to land at a military base during a thunderstorm on Friday.

At least 21 people were injured in the accident.

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.

A total of 136 passengers and seven crew members were on board when the accident happened, a spokesman for the Florida air base 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.

The plane involved was a Boeing 737-800, in operation for 18 years, according to website FlightRadar24.

Boeing said it was aware of the incident and was providing technical assistance to authorities conducting a probe.

The accident came following two Boeing plane crashes that killed a total of 346 passengers and crew.

Both a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October and an Ethiopian Airlines crash outside Addis Ababa in March occurred shortly after takeoff.

(Cover: A Boeing 737 skids off the runway into a river near Jacksonville, Florida, U.S., May 4, 2019. /Courtesy of Florida's Sheriff Office via Twitter)

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters