Communication with a small Mexican Navy aircraft, which was transporting a young medical patient along with seven other individuals, was lost for approximately 10 minutes before it tragically crashed off the Texas coastline. At least five people lost their lives, as confirmed by Mexico’s president on Tuesday.

Initially, it was thought that the aircraft had reached its intended destination in Galveston, near Houston, safely. However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum later announced that the plane had actually gone down on Monday afternoon. The crash’s cause is still under investigation. A search-and-rescue operation conducted near Galveston managed to pull two survivors from the wreckage, while one individual remains unaccounted for, according to Mexico’s Navy.

Among the eight passengers on board, four were Navy officers and the other four were civilians, including a child. Two of the civilians were associated with a nonprofit organization dedicated to transporting Mexican children with severe burns to a hospital in Galveston.

During her morning press briefing, President Sheinbaum expressed her sympathies, stating, “My condolences to the families of the sailors who unfortunately died in this accident and to the people who were traveling on board.” She refrained from speculating on the crash’s cause, adding, “What happened is very tragic.”

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Luke Baker confirmed the deaths of at least five individuals on board but did not specify which passengers were among the deceased.

The plane crashed Monday afternoon in a bay near the base of the causeway connecting Galveston Island to the mainland. Emergency responders rushed to the scene near the popular beach destination about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston.

Sky Decker, a professional yacht captain who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the crash site, said he jumped in his boat to see if he could help. He picked up two police officers who guided him through thick fog to a nearly submerged plane. Decker jumped into the water and found a badly injured woman trapped beneath chairs and other debris.

“I couldn’t believe. She had maybe 3 inches of air gap to breathe in,” he said. “And there was jet fuel in there mixed with the water, fumes real bad. She was really fighting for her life.”

He said he also pulled out a man seated in front of her who had already died. Both were wearing civilian clothes.

It’s not immediately clear if weather was a factor. The area was experiencing foggy conditions over the past few days, according to Cameron Batiste, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He said that at about 2:30 p.m. Monday a fog came in that had about a half-mile visibility.

Teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were at the crash site Monday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said, and a spokesperson for the NTSB said the agency was gathering information about the crash.

Mexico’s Navy said the plane was helping with a medical mission in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation. In a social media post, the foundation offered condolences to the families and said it shared their grief “with respect and compassion.”

The charity was founded after a mother died trying to save her kids from a fire. One child succumbed to his injuries because he didn’t receive highly specialized medical care, while another survived after receiving treatment at Shriners Children’s Texas in Galveston. Over 23 years, the foundation has helped transfer more than 2,000 patients to that hospital and other medical facilities with burn expertise, according to charity’s website.

Shriners Children’s Texas said in a statement that it learned of the crash with “profound sadness” but wasn’t able to provide any information about the child’s condition because the child hadn’t yet been admitted.

This latest crash comes amid a year of intense scrutiny on aviation safety after a string of high-profile crashes and the flight disruptions during the government shutdown driven by the shortage of air traffic controllers.

The January mid-air collision between an Army helicopter and an airliner near Washington D.C. was followed by the crash of a medical transport plane in Philadelphia. This fall’s fiery UPS plane crash only added to the concerns. Still, the total number of crashes in 2025 was actually down a bit from last year and experts say flying remains safe overall.