JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Aviation officials are working to determine what caused Friday night's incident where a Boeing 737 slid off a Jacksonville runway.
- All passengers and staff accounted for after plane slid off runway in Jacksonville
- Boeing 737 slid off runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville
- NTSB officials are in Jacksonville to investigate
The NTSB "Go Team" arrived in Jacksonville Saturday morning to investigate the inicident.
A chartered commercial aircraft with 136 passengers and a crew of seven slid off the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville Friday just before 10 p.m., landing in the St. John's River.
What should have been a two and a half hour flight from Guantanamo to Jacksonville ended with the Miami Air Boeing 737 resting in shallow water.
The flight was a regular charter run by Miami Air International, which has many military contracts, including weekly flights between the U.S. base in Cuba and the Jacksonville air station as well as Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
A marine unit responded to assist. The plane was in shallow water and not submerged. Everyone on the plane was alive and accounted for.
It was a scary flight with passengers not knowing what the outcome would be.
Passenger Cheryl Bormann described the chaotic final moments: "We couldn't tell where we were, whether it was a river or there was rain coming down. There was lightning."
Naval Air Station Jacksonville commanding officer Capt. Michael Connor confirmed the weather wasn't ideal.
A spokesperson for the base says all 143 people on board survived, with 21 people are being treated for minor injuries.
"We stood on the wing for a significant period of time," Bormann said. "Then the rescue folks came."
Although all passengers were back on land, according to NAS and NTSB, the pets on the plane have not been retrieved due to safety reasons. The efforts are about securing the parameter. An NTSB official in a Saturday evening presser said first responders' first priority was saving "human life" and have "great empathy" for passengers who may have lost their pets.
"The next priority is containment of the aircraft and any type of fuel," Connor said.
In the Saturday presser, NTSB officials said they're recovered the aircraft's flight data recorder, which was not damaged, and will soon learn about the status of the engine and other parts of the plane during the flight.
The cockpit voice recorder, located in the tail of the aircraft, is currently underwater, officials said. It can't be accessed until the aircraft is moved from the water.
Officials said the plane is not the same type of Boeings that have been grounded. Boeing is providing technical assistance to investigators.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue tweeted that approximately 90 personnel responded to the scene, and that the department's special operations team had just trained with marine units for a similar incident earlier Friday.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.