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By Phil Helsel
A Boeing 767 cargo jet with a reported three people on board crashed into Trinity Bay east of Houston on Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The twin-engine plane operated by Atlas Air Inc. crashed shortly before 12:45 p.m. The FAA said that contact was lost with the jet approximately 30 miles southeast of Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and that the aircraft was flying from Miami to Houston.
FAA spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said that initial reports indicated that three people were on board.
Lunsford added that FAA investigators were on their way to the accident site and the National Transportation Safety Board has been notified.
The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and said it was sending a team to investigate.
The Chambers County Sheriff’s Office said it and multiple agencies were responding.
The sheriff’s office said on Facebook that the plane has been located in Jack’s Pocket at the north end of Trinity Bay.
Initial reports were that there was a thunderstorm in the area at the time of the crash, aviation sources said. The preliminary report is that there was no distress call, the sources said.
The National Weather Service’s Houston and Galveston office said that there could be isolated thunderstorms ahead of a cold front in the area, in a tweet citing radar just before noon.
Chambers County Fire Marshal Ryan Holzaepfel told NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston that “there’s still a lot of uncertainties about exactly what happened.”
He said that several agencies, including the state Department of Public Safety, were on scene or responding, along with dive teams.
Boeing said that it was aware of reports of a 767 freighter accident and was gathering more information.