At least five people have been killed after a Mexican Navy plane crashed in foggy conditions near Galveston, Texas on Monday while transporting a child burns victim.
According to flight tracking website Flight Radar, the plane was last recorded at 15:01 local time (21:01 GMT) over Galveston Bay, near Scholes International Airport.
The aircraft was taking part in a medical mission on behalf of the Michou y Mau Foundation, which provides care to Mexican children with severe burns.
Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy said one person remains missing and two others were rescued alive.
Video footage shared with AP news agency showed the wreckage of the plane in the water, with witnesses and police officers seen entering the water to search the debris.
Sky Decker, a local yacht captain, said he took two police officers to the site of the nearly submerged plane, before jumping in and finding a badly injured woman trapped.
He said: “I couldn’t believe. She had maybe three inches of air gap to breathe in.
“And there was jet fuel in there mixed with the water, fumes real bad. She was really fighting for her life.”
Earlier the Mexican Navy Secretariat said search and rescue operations were under way in co-ordination with the US Coast Guard.
Video taken near Scholes International Airport in Galveston showed rescuers including a dive team working in dense fog.
In a statement shared on X, the Michou y Mau Foundation sent “our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy”.
