Passenger on Jacksonville jet that crashed into river: "It was total chaos"
Cell phone video showed some of the 143 on board the Miami Air charter flight Friday night, huddled on the wing of the Boeing 737 waiting for rescue. The military-chartered skidded off the runway Friday and ran into the St. Johns River. Everyone aboard survived.
The plane took off from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and was landing at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
"It almost sounded like an explosion. It was just the loudest crash I ever heard in my life," passenger Darwing Silva said. Silva shot video after he opened one of the emergency exits and helped people escape, reports CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave.
"It was total chaos. It was total mayhem. I heard children crying. I heard people screaming," he said.
By boat, we got a closer look. The overwing exits Silva used sit open and an exit slide was floating still attached. The plane was sitting in four to six feet of water and investigators are saying it came to rest on a rock bed. One of the real challenges is how do you get a 737 out of a river? Investigators need to do that in part because the cockpit voice recorder is submerged.
The NTSB said pilots changed their landing approach to a different runway. Preliminary flight data shows the plane appears to have come in with a tail wind, and fast—around 205 mph with one engine thrust reverser offline. If it were working properly, the thrust reverser could help slow the plane down, NTSB vice chairman Bruce Landsberg said.
"It is quite remarkable everyone walked away from this accident," Van Cleave noted.
"It is remarkable. We've been involved in a number of other investigations where the outcome wasn't so positive," Landsberg said.
Silva realizes this and said he is grateful to be home to his sons.
"They are my motivation for everything and I knew I had to get out of that situation for them," Silva said.
Twenty-two people suffered minor injuries. All are expected to be okay. The weather is supposed to improve, which should help investigators, but it could be days before the plane is moved.
