JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sixteen National Transportation Safety Board investigators are in Jacksonville piecing together how and why the Miami Air International Boeing 737-800 inbounds from Guantanamo Bay ended up in the St. Johns River.
They said the plane overran NAS Jax runway 10 before hitting the seawall and coming to rest in the shallow waters of the river.
Investigators said they've recovered the flight data recorder, and it holds many of the answers they’re looking for.
“That’ll give us the airspeed, the position of flight controls, the altitude, the point of touchdown,” said NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg in a news briefing Saturday afternoon.
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Investigators told Action News Jax it’s being sent to an NTSB lab for processing in Washington D.C. Meanwhile, investigators said their work comes with challenges.
They said the plane’s cockpit voice recorder is in the tail of the plane, and can’t be retrieved until the plane is removed from the St. Johns River.
NTSB investigators also said today the plane should be removed in one piece to preserve the "perishable evidence." They hadn’t settled on a way to do so as of the time of the briefing, but one option may include inflatable flotation devices.
“Putting some sort of cushioning below, having that inflated, and then being able to pull it off,” said John Lovell, Senior Aircraft Accident Investigator.
Investigators also revealed how the Coast Guard is addressing jet fuel in the St. Johns River.
“There was some leaking of jet fuel,” said Landsberg. “Coast Guard as I understand it has installed some booms around that to contain the jet fuel there.”
NAS Jax Commander Michael Connor spoke to concerns about the condition of the unaccounted for pets. Connor said their first priority was addressing human life, then determine the status of the pets.
"Initial responders did look inside the cargo bay," he said. "They did not see anything. They did not hear any animal noises. They could not see any crates."
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He said first responders returned later in the night to check on the animals in the cargo bay but did not see any pet carriers above the water line.
“Our sympathy and my heart really goes out to those families,” he said as he discussed the circumstances surrounding the pets.
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