Body recovered after cargo jet crashes near Houston

The jetliner went into shallow water nose first Saturday with three people aboard, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said.

The body is the only one recovered "thus far," the sheriff's office said.

"The joint operation between the Chambers County Sheriff's Office, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI will continue to attempt recovery of victims and the aircraft," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

Hawthorne said the crash site in Trinity Bay near Anahuac, Texas, is in water just 5 feet deep and is reachable by airboats and other flat-bottom craft. The scene extends over 3 miles, he said.

Multiple dive teams from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Houston Police, and the Baytown Police are at the crash site, he added.

The plane was operated by Atlas Air Inc. on behalf of Amazon, the operator said in a statement. It was traveling from Miami to Houston when it went down about 40 miles southeast of George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The sheriff described seeing the contents of packages and cardboard boxes as he traveled across the water, then seeing parts of the twin-engine Boeing 767.

"There was nothing intact of the airplane," he said. "Knowing what I saw, I don't think anyone could survive it."

He said about six people saw the plane go into the water. Some said it sounded like the engines were "surging," the sheriff said.

"There's no doubt he was having some kind of problem with the airplane, according to the eyewitnesses," the sheriff said. "Then it turned and went into a nosedive."

The 767 was in a normal descent as it approached the airport, then went into a "very, very rapid descent" at 6,300 feet, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt told reporters in Washington before his team left for Texas.

Atlas Air said three people on the plane "and their family members are our top priority at this time." The operator said it was cooperating with federal investigators.

The president of the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, said the three people on the flight were union members.

"Our union stands together as a family and in support of our members' families," said Daniel C. Wells, who is also an Atlas Air captain. "Our focus is on our friends and colleagues who were on that plane, and we are doing everything we can to support their families."

Aerial images from CNN affiliate KPRC showed emergency responders on airboats near the site of a significant amount of debris.

The plane was located in Jack's Pocket at the north end of Trinity Bay, the Chambers County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook.

According to the FAA website, the plane was built in 1992 and the flight number was 3591.

Boeing said it was saddened to hear about the crash.

"We are concerned about the safety of the three people reported to be on board the airplane," it said. "We are prepared to provide technical assistance to the National Transportation Safety Board as it investigates the accident."

CNN's Rebekah Riess and Thom Patterson contributed to this report.

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