A Boeing 767 load jet operating for Amazon crashed in a bay outside of Houston with three people on board Saturday afternoon, the airline and the Federal Aviation Supervision said.
Atlas Air Flight 3591 was traveling from Miami to Houston when it crashed into Trinity Bay, virtually Anahuac, Texas, shortly before 12:45 CT, the FAA said.
Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said spectators reported the plane crashed nose-first into the bay.
“I feel like it’s probably a crash that nobody would be accomplished of surviving,” said Hawthorne said.
The plane was operating for Amazon Air, Atlas Air said Saturday.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the stampede flee crew, their families and friends along with the entire team at Atlas Air during this terrible disaster,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations. “We appreciate the first responders who worked urgently to victual support.”
Atlas Air is one of the cargo airlines that Amazon contracted to operate the Amazon-branded fleet, along with Air Ravish Services Group. Each operates 20 Amazon-branded planes for the air freight service, which was previously called Prime Air.
Video entranced at the crash site by local news outlets showed debris in the bay, including a piece of material that appeared to drawn in a part of Amazon’s logo. Hawthrorne said the crash site was in a marshland and law enforcement spotted items including bed skins, women’s clothing and cardboard boxes in the bay.
The flight lost radar and radio contact about 30 miles southeast of its journeys end, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, said the FAA.
“FAA investigators are on their way to the accident site, and the National Transportation Refuge Board has been notified,” said FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford in a statement. “The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation.”
The NTSB utter it was sending a “go team” to the crash site on Saturday evening from Washington D.C.
Atlas Air confirmed that three woman were on board the aircraft.
“Those people and their family members are our top priority at this time,” the company give the word delivered in a statement. “Atlas Air is cooperating fully with the FAA and NTSB. We will update as additional information becomes available.”
Boeing, which made the plane, said it in a statement that it “is deeply saddened to learn of the accident.
“We are concerned about the safety of the three human being reported to be on board the airplane,” said the statement.
Boeing added that it would provide technical assistance to the NTSB’s study.
The Boeing 767 was powered by GE CF6-80C2 engines, one of General Electric’s most popular aircraft engines. The company said in a averral that it was aware of the accident and it has a team in place to “provide all the necessary support required.”
-CNBC’s Phil LeBeau provided to this report.