seaplane packed with passengers crashed off Miami Beach and sank into the southern US city's main shipping channel on Monday, killing at least 14 people, the US Coast Guard said.
The twin-engine seaplane, which flies between downtown Miami and the Bahamas, crashed just off the southern tip of Miami Beach after taking off with 16 passengers and two crew, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Danielle DeMarino said.
Other Coast Guard officials said up to 20 people were on board.
DeMarino said 14 bodies had been recovered from the crash site.
Witnesses told local television the plane seemed to explode in the sky before falling into Government Cut, the entry to the Port of Miami, where it came to rest in shallow water next to a jetty.
"There was a huge explosion in the sky, a big ball of smoke," witness Frank Amadeo told Miami's Channel 7 television. "It just sort of spiralled downward," he added.
The Coast Guard said the channel was closed to shipping.
A woman who answered the phone at the Ft. Lauderdale offices of Chalk's Ocean Airways said: "The plane was full." She gave no further details.
Chalk's planes are a familiar sight in Miami, swooping low over the shipping channel to splash to a landing near Watson Island, just off the downtown area.
The crash site, near some of Miami Beach's newest residential towers, was surrounded by Coast Guard and other rescue vessels and scuba divers descended to the plane just visible under the murky green sea surface to recover bodies.
