THEY were called rescue workers, but the men in flat bottom boats searching for the 109 people on board a DC-9, which crashed on Saturday, in the Florida Everglades found they had all disappeared in waist deep water infested by snakes and alligators.
The ValuJet aircraft had also been swallowed up in thick mud beneath the water, and no pieces bigger than a baseball cap were recovered, officials said. Yesterday the search for bodies was called off amid speculation they may never be found.
Airboats, powered by huge fans, spread out across water thick with razor sharp sawgrass and covered by an oil slick in the search for wreckage and bodies. However, until a gravel road is constructed from dry land no progress can be made in retrieving the aircraft parts, officials said. Floodgates will be opened to lower water levels.
Other boats patrolled nearby to chase off alligators as divers tried to find the jet's voice recorders to provide clues to the crash, but the mud is like quicksand and from five to 30 feet deep.
Authorities have told relatives there were no survivors from the 1969 McDonnell Douglas DC-9, which smashed into the Everglades after taking off from Miami International Airport bound for Atlanta.
"This area is heavily populated by alligators and poisonous snakes, and we're trying to do our best and at the same time not put any of the rescuers' lives at risk said Mr Roman Bas, of MetroDade Fire Rescue.
Workers found bits of baby clothing and a family album near the crash site, which is about 10 miles inside the Everglades, a vast wetland covering 2,000 square miles populated by alligators, rare birds, and Florida panthers.
ValuJet Flight 592 had 104 passengers and five crew members aboard. Mr Lewis Jordan, president of ValuJet, said it took off at 2.05 p.m. on Saturday and that 10 minutes later its crew requested a return to Miami Airport.
The pilot told air traffic control he had smoke in the cockpit, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The crash occurred 15 miles north west of Miami. Air safety officials refused to speculate on what caused the crash.
Two pilots in a small aircraft nearby said they saw the jet plunge into the swamp at a 75 degree angle.
The Everglades was also the scene of an Eastern Airlines L1011 jet crash in 1972, which claimed 101 lives, but this was a low altitude crash and some people were rescued.