No likely survivors in US jetliner crash

A Boeing 767 cargo jetliner heading to Houston with three people aboard disintegrated after crashing into a bay east of the city.

Witnesses told emergency personnel that the twin-engine plane "went in nose first," leaving a debris field in Trinity Bay, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said on Saturday.

"It's probably a crash that nobody would survive," he said, referring to the scene as "total devastation".

Witnesses said they heard the plane's engines surging and that the craft turned sharply before falling into a nosedive, Hawthorne said.

The plane had departed from Miami and was likely only minutes away from landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.