Over 100 People in Boeing 737 Have Flown Into a Florida River: Mayor

Over 100 People in Boeing 737 Have Flown Into a Florida River: Mayor
Photo of the plane that flew into the river. (Jacksonville Sheriff's office)
5/4/2019
Updated:
5/4/2019

A commercial plane with over 100 people went into the St. Johns River on the night of May 3, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said.

“I’ve been briefed that all lives have been accounted for,” the mayor tweeted.

The Naval Air Station Jacksonville said a Boeing 737 slid off of a runway into the St. Johns River at 9:40 p.m. ET. A spokesperson from the station told CNN affiliate WJXT that the plane appears to have skidded off the airport runway while trying to land and ended up in the river.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet the plane was in “shallow water,” and was “not submerged.
The sheriff’s office also said “every person is alive.

Curry said fire and rescue crews were on the scene.

“While they work please pray,” he wrote.

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Another Plane Crash Involving Over 100 People

The death of its 157 passengers in Ethiopian Airlines’s Boeing was due to an anti-stalling system, according to BBC. Shortly after taking off, the plane’s nose pitched down, crashing six minutes after it had reached 450 feet above the ground.

Ethiopian and United States investigations of the crash found that before the tragedy, the automatic anti-stall system had been activated. The same Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was also found to have contributed to the doomed Lion Air flight that crashed in Indonesia last year and is believed to have pushed the plane’s nose down toward the earth.

The Lion Air crash involved the same type of aircraft: Boeing 737 Max-8. That crash resulted in 189 deaths. Investigators found that the Lion Air plane’s nose dived toward earth various times when the anti-stall system malfunctioned, according to BBC. Ethiopian authorities have said there is a connection between the two accidents; however, authorities and airlines have not commented on those details.

Software has since been redesigned for the Boeing 737 Max-8. MCAS will now be disabled if the plane’s sensors receive conflicting data.

According to BBC, the two crashed planes did not have alert systems that warned the pilots of contradictory readings. The software update will ensure that MCAS will not interfere when the pilot tries to take control of the plane.

CNN contributed to this article