A Mexican Navy aircraft carrying medical patients crashed into Galveston Bay, Texas, on Monday afternoon, killing at least five people, including a two-year-old child, according to US Coast Guard officials.
Eight people were on board the small twin-engine turboprop plane—four Mexican naval crew members and four civilians—when it went down during its approach to Galveston.
Two people were rescued alive, while one remains unaccounted for.
The aircraft was on a humanitarian medical mission, transporting burn patients to Shriners Children’s Hospital in Galveston. Mexico’s Navy said the flight was conducted in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation, a nonprofit that arranges emergency transfers for children with life-threatening burns, according to news reports.
The plane had departed from Mérida, in Mexico’s Yucatán state, and was headed to Galveston Scholes International Airport.
A nearby resident, Sky Decker, described jumping into the water to help rescue a woman trapped inside the wreckage before divers arrived.
He said she survived by breathing from a small pocket of air near the ceiling of the submerged plane. Decker also recovered the body of a man who had already died, adding that the aircraft appeared almost completely underwater and survival initially seemed unlikely.
Authorities said dense sea fog may have contributed to the crash, with witnesses reporting near-zero visibility at the time.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation by the US Coast Guard, with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
