US investigators are converging on the site where the 767-300ER Freighter crashed into the water on 23 February, killing three people on board.
The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a “go team” from Washington, DC to the crash site, which is near the town of Baytown, Texas, not far from Houston, says the agency on Twitter.
Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Houston office has sent staff to the site, including evidence response teams and crisis management personnel, that agency says.
Atlas Air says none of the three people on board the aircraft survived the accident. "This is a sad time for all of us," says Atlas Air chief executive Bill Flynn. "Our team continues to work closely with the NTSB, the FAA and local authorities on the ground in Houston.
The FBI's Houston office says on Twitter that human remains have been found at the site.
The aircraft, registration N1217A, was operating Atlas Air flight 3591 from Miami to Houston when it crashed shortly before 12:45 local time into Trinity Bay, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration. Purchase, New York-based Atlas was operating the cargo flight on behalf of Amazon.
The aircraft hit the water about 30 miles (48km) southeast of Houston Intercontinental airport, the FAA adds.
Eyewitnesses who reported the crash to authorities “watched [the aircraft] go nose first into the bay,” Chambers County sheriff Brian Hawthorne told media outlets.“I feel like it’s probably a crash that nobody would be capable of surviving,” he adds. The aircraft crashed at the north end of Trinity Bay and left an east-to-west debris field, Hawthorne adds.
“Our union stands together as a family and in support of our members’ families. Our focus is on our friends and colleagues who were on that plane, and we are doing everything we can to support their families,” says union Airline Professionals Association, which represents Atlas Air’s pilots.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
