Probe after jet slides into river

A TEAM of 16 federal investigators have recovered the flight data recorder of a plane that crashed into a river in Florida.

Investigators will examine the aircraft, the environment and human factors in trying to discover why the plane rolled into the river.

The Boeing 737-800 chartered by the US military was arriving from Naval Station Guantánamo Bay in Cuba with 136 passengers and seven crew members when it slid into the St Johns river at the end of the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

But authorities said all the people on-board emerged without critical injuries on Friday night, lining the wings as they waited to be rescued.

Only a three-month-old baby was hospitalised, and that was done out of an abundance of caution, officials said.

The plane, chartered from Miami Air International, was attempting to land at 9.40pm local time on Friday amid thunder and lightning when it slid off the runway and came to rest in the shallow water of the river, authorities and passengers said.

The aircraft had no prior history of accidents, said a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman.

Picture: AP A charter plane carrying 143 people and travelling from Cuba to north Florida sits in a river at the end of a runway in Jacksonville, Florida.