No likely survivors in cargo jet crash near Houston, sheriff says

ANAHUAC, Texas — A Boeing 767 cargo jetliner heading to Houston with three people aboard disintegrated after crashing Saturday into a bay east of the city, a Texas sheriff said.

Witnesses told emergency personnel that the twin-engine plane “went in nose first,” leaving a debris field three-quarters of a mile long in Trinity Bay, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said.

“It’s probably a crash that nobody would survive,” he said, referring to the scene as “total devastation.”

Witnesses said that they heard the plane’s engines surging and that the craft turned sharply before falling, Hawthorne said.

Aerial footage showed emergency personnel walking along a spit of marshland flecked by debris that extended into the water.

Recovering pieces of the plane, its black box containing flight data records and any remains of the people on board will be difficult in muddy marshland that extends to about 5 feet deep in the area, Hawthorne said. Air boats are needed to access the area.

The plane had departed from Miami and was probably minutes from landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert after officials lost radar and radio contact with Atlas Air Flight 3591 when it was about 30 miles southeast of the airport, FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.

The Coast Guard dispatched boats and at least one helicopter to assist in the search for survivors. A dive team with the Texas Department of Public Safety will look for the black box, Hawthorne said.

Trinity Bay is just north of Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

FAA investigators are traveling to the scene as are authorities with the National Transportation Safety Board, which will lead the investigation.