Twenty people, including three children, were killed when a propeller engined seaplane broke apart in mid-flight and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off south Florida on Monday, officials and witnesses said.
Nineteen bodies had been recovered and one was still missing when the Coast Guard halted its search late on Monday, Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the US National Transportation and Safety Board, told reporters.
He said rescue crews hoped to raise the plane and recover its flight recorder yesterday.
PHOTO: AP
Coast Guard officials said three infants were among the 18 passengers and two crew members aboard the seaplane.
The charter aircraft, which belonged to Chalk's Ocean Airways, crashed in shallow waters at the entrance to Biscayne Bay, which separates the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, soon after taking off on Monday afternoon.
Video footage broadcast on CNN showed what appeared to be the plane's right wing breaking off in flames as the fuselage banked to the left and spiraled into the ocean.
Accident investigators said they were not ruling out any possible cause for the crash.
"We will be looking at everything in the investigation, nothing is off the table," Rosenker said.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said agents were sent to the crash scene as a routine matter "to make sure there's no terrorist link."
A flotilla of civilian, police and Coast Guard crafts swarmed to the site accompanied by several helicopters shortly after the crash.
Coast Guard divers plunged into the ocean but were unable to rescue any survivors.
The airplane, a 17-passenger Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard -- a twin-engine amphibious aircraft manufactured in 1947 capable of operating from water as well as land-based airports -- was upside-down under several meters of water and visible from the air.
One witness, who identified herself only as "Terry", was surfing close to the rocks with a group of friends at the time of the crash.
"It went right over my head, when I looked up it was on fire. It was about 6m above the water. I really thought it would land on us."
Then "there was a loud squealing sound and lots of smoke came out of the back" and it went down, she said.
Richard Lopes was fishing on the jetty when the plane went down.
"The plane made a sharp left-hand turn, and then there was a huge ball of fire," he said.
The plane "blew up before it hit the water," said dockworker Juan Lopez.
"The flight departed the sea plane base at Watson Island on its way to the island of Bimini in Bahamas," Roger Nair, director of operations for Chalk's Ocean Airways, said.
It is the 86-year-old company's "only crash with passengers," he said.
"We're a close-knit family airline. The thoughts and prayers are with the passenger and crews," he added.
Once it was clear there were no survivors from the crash, Miami Beach City Manager Jorge Gonzalez gave a press conference along with Fire Chief Floyd Jordan and Police Chief Donald Deluca.
Most of the bodies were found still strapped to their seats, said Jordan.
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