At a Glance

A plane skidded into the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida, Friday night.Minor injuries were reported but no fatalities.The cause is unknown but thunderstorms were in the area at the time of the crash.Three pets in the cargo hold didn't make it.

A Florida man who was aboard a chartered 737 that slid off a runway into the St. Johns River in Jacksonville on Friday night said passengers were warned the plane might not be fit for the trip.

Darwing Silva of Miami told the Tampa Bay Times because of an air conditioning issue. When passengers were allowed to board, they were told the air conditioning still did not work, said Sliva, who works for a Fort Lauderdale roofing company building a school at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Boeing 737 was traveling from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay and skidded off the runway when it attempted to land about 9:40 p.m. Friday in Jacksonville, according to .

"We noticed something was wrong when (the plane) wasn’t slowing down, but ," Silva told WJXT TV. "The last thing we expected was the impact."

The military-chartered jet was carrying 136 passengers and seven aircrew when it landed hard, then bounced and swerved as the pilot struggled to control it amid thunder and lightning, ultimately skidding off the runway and into the river, the Associated Press reported.

Tyler Hall of Texas was flying with his father. "When we were coming in, it felt like we were coming a little fast and then hit the runway. It felt like we skipped, and it was like we never slowed down," Tyler told WJXT. "We continued going and we were running out of runway. When we got close to the end, I felt like we were probably not going to have a good ending."

Silva was among 21 people taken to hospitals and released. Officials said a 3-month-old baby was hospitalized out of an abundance of caution. There were no fatalities.

The commanding officer of Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Capt. Michael Connor, said in a that the passengers were a mixture of military personnel and civilians.

Connor also said the plane was submerged about half way up the fuselage, and the landing gear appeared to be resting on the riverbed, AP reported.

In this photo released by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, authorities work at the scenes of a plane in the water in Jacksonville Florida, Friday, May 3, 2019. Officials say a charter plane traveling from Cuba to north Florida ended up in a river at the end of a runway. A Naval Air Station Jacksonville news release says a Boeing 737 arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, crashed into the St. Johns River Friday night.

(Jacksonville Sheriff's Office via AP)

Two pet cats and a dog were in the cargo area of the plane. Connor said rescuers looked in the hold after the plane ended up in the river but saw no crates and heard no animal noises. When they returned later, they didn't see any pet carriers above water, Connor said.

There are environmental concerns and Jacksonville said that crews are working on containing jet fuel.

The cause of the incident is under investigation. NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said officials are exploring ways to remove the plane from the river and preserve evidence.

"We are because it doesn’t make any sense to tear the aircraft apart and lose any evidence you refer to as perishable data," Landsberg told WJXT.

A trough of low pressure was in the area Friday night and combined with ample moisture allowed thunderstorms to develop in the Jacksonville area. These thunderstorms contained heavy rainfall and also reduced visibility in the area at the time the plane slid off the runway.

Connor, the base commander, said he didn't know what impact the weather had on the flight.

"I was at home when this happened and there were thunderstorms and lightning," he said.

The charter flight was operated by Miami Air International, which regularly transports military service members and their families from Guantanamo to naval air stations in Jacksonville and Norfolk, Virginia.