Passengers on plane that hit St. Johns won't get luggage for 7 more weeks

Miami Air International has contracted company to inventory, clean baggage

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As a chartered jet that ran off a Naval Air Station Jacksonville runway and into the St. Johns River continues to sit at a nearby industrial park, the passengers who survived that crash landing are still waiting to get their belongings back.

Miami Air International posted Tuesday that all the baggage from the ill-fated flight has been transferred to BMS CAT's industrial processing center.

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Miami Air has contracted with the incident recovery operations company to inventory and clean the baggage before it can be returned to the passengers.

The process is expected to take up to seven more weeks.

BMS CAT has set up a secure log-in for passengers to identify their baggage and contents at www.global-bms.com.

Once the items have been claimed and cleaned up, BMS CAT will return the items to the passengers.

For more information on the process, click here.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating why the plane ended up in the St. Johns River. 

The plane left the runway about 60 feet right of the centerline onto the grass before hitting a rocky embankment at the end of the runway, before stopping in the St. Johns River. The landing gear separated from the plane during landing and the plane stopped in less than 5 feet of water. No one was seriously injured.

The NTSB says the Miami Air flight encountered heavy rain as it began its descent and switched to a different runway where the weather seemed better. The NTSB report notes that thunderstorms with frequent lightning were in the area.

LINK: Report from National Transportation Safety Board

At the time of the crash, the plane had logged 38,928 total flight hours, with 15,610 total flight cycles, according to the report.

The NTSB said the captain had been working for Miami Air since March 2008, with about 7,500 hours of total flight experience. The flight was part of an "operating experience trip" for the plane's first officer, who was hired by Miami Air in January.

Investigators said the crew that was on board the plane had previously made a flight from NAS Jacksonville to Guantanamo Bay.