Boeing 737 slides into river with no fatalities

A charter plane traveling from Cuba to the US state of Florida overshot a runway at a Jacksonville military base and skidded into a river, officials said.

The Jacksonville sheriff's office tweeted that all 143 people on board were "alive and accounted for."

Twenty-one people were injured and taken to hospital in a stable condition.

The mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, said on Twitter that US President Donald Trump had called him to offer help.

"No fatalities reported. We are all in this together," Curry said.

The Boeing 737-800 ended up in shallow water in the St. John's River at Naval Air Station Jacksonville after attempting to land there during a thunder storm on Friday night.

Read more: Boeing slashes 737 MAX output after deadly crashes

"As we went down ... the plane bounced and screeched and bounced more and lifted to the right and then it lifted to the left," one of the passengers, Cheryl Bormann, told CNN.

"And then it sort of swerved and then it came to a complete crash stop."

Capt. Michael Connor, the commanding officer of NAS Jacksonville, said the plane had been carrying a mix of civilian and military personnel from the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

"I think it is a miracle," Connor said. "We could be talking about a different story this evening ... it very well could be worse."

He said crews began working to contain any jet fuel leaks after ferrying passengers safely to shore.

Read more: Boeing reveals further software problem in 737 MAX airplane

Boeing said in a statement it was providing technical assistance to the US National Transportation Safety Board as the agency conducts its investigation.

Officials did not immediately say what caused the plane to overshoot the runway.

nm/rc (AP, Reuters, dpa)

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