Authorities said the plane took off from Mexico and went down in the bay while attempting to land at Scholes International Airport.
GALVESTON, Texas — A plane crashed into Galveston Bay on Monday, killing five people and injuring two, according to authorities.
It happened just west of the Galveston Causeway. The United States Coast Guard said it got a call about the crash around 3:15 p.m.
Around 7 p.m., Coast Guard officials said there were eight people on board. Five died, two were hospitalized, and one remains unaccounted for.
According to the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, the plane took off from Mexico. Data from Flightradar24 shows it departed from Merida, Mexico, the capital of the Yucatán state.
Sheriff’s office officials said the plane was heading to Galveston with at least one pediatric burn patient on board. Video from the scene showed at least one child pulled from the water and loaded onto an ambulance.
Sheriff’s officials said their dive team was helping at the crash scene, located just north of Scholes International Airport, where the plane was attempting to land. The Texas Department of Public Safety is leading the investigation.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were on scene.
The Secretary of the Navy for Mexico posted to social media that one of its aircraft, conducting a medical support mission, “experienced an incident” on approach to Galveston. The post referenced a foundation for burned children.
Shriners Children’s Texas issued a statement regarding the pediatric patient:
“It is with profound sadness that we learned of a child involved in a plane crash while being transported for burn care in Galveston this afternoon. Shriners Children’s Texas prides ourselves on caring for children from all over the world. Having not admitted this patient, we are unable to provide any information about their condition and kindly defer all future inquiries to the Mexican Navy, whose care the child was under when this unfortunate accident occurred.”
People were asked to avoid the area while emergency response crews worked at the scene.
The Galveston area was very foggy on Monday. While it’s unclear if the fog played a role in the crash, it likely impacted search and rescue efforts.
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