“It was a dark and stormy night” might be the title of the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) report on a passenger flight from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Florida that ended with the plane resting in the shallow water of a river. There were no serious injuries to the 142 passengers and crew onboard, but the airplane was substantially damaged in the May 3rdincident at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station (KNIP).
The NTSB’s investigation into why the plane slid off the runway and fell into St. Johns River is ongoing, but in an agency update on the inquiry, weather conditions are prominently mentioned. Twenty minutes before the incident, thunderstorms, frequent lightning, heavy rain, wind gusts and mist were reported in the area, with five miles of visibility and a “broken ceiling of cumulonimbus clouds.”