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The jet plane went into shallow water on Saturday, with three people on board, said Sheriff Brian Hawthorne of Chambers County.
The body is the only one found "until now," the sheriff's office said.
"The joint operation between the Chambers County Sheriff's Office, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI will continue to attempt to recover the victims and the plane," the sheriff's office said in a statement.
Hawthorne said that the crash site in Trinity Bay, near Anahuac, Texas, was in the water at a depth of 5 feet and that it was accessible by plane or other flat-bottomed boat. The scene extends over 3 miles, he said.
Several diving teams from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Houston Police and Baytown Police are at the accident site, he added.
The aircraft was operated by Atlas Air Inc. on behalf of Amazon, said the operator in a statement. He was traveling from Miami to Houston when he fell about 40 miles southeast of the George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The sheriff recounted having seen the contents of packages and cartons as he was crossing the water, then seeing parts of the Boeing 767 twin engine.
"There was nothing intact about the plane," he said. "Knowing what I saw, I do not think anyone can survive it."
He said that about six people saw the plane get into the water. Some said the engines appeared to be "making waves," the sheriff said.
"There is no doubt that he would have had a problem with the plane, according to eyewitnesses," said the sheriff. "Then he went back and stung his nose."
The 767 was in a normal descent at the approach of the airport, then in a "very, very fast descent" at 6,300 feet, told reporters the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, before the departure of his team for Texas.
Atlas Air has stated that three people in the plane "and their family members are our number one priority right now". The operator indicated that he cooperated with federal investigators.
The president of the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, said the three passengers on the flight were members of the union.
"Our union is uniting to form a family and support the families of our members," said Daniel C. Wells, who is also captain of Atlas Air. "We are focusing on our friends and colleagues on this plane, and we are doing everything we can to support their families."
The plane was located in Jack's Pocket, at the north end of Trinity Bay, the Chambers County Sheriff's Office reported on Facebook.
According to the FAA website, the aircraft was built in 1992 and the flight number was 3591.
Boeing said that he was saddened to hear about the accident.
"We are concerned about the safety of the three people who would be on board the plane," he said. "We are ready to provide technical assistance to the National Transportation Safety Board as part of its investigation into the accident."
CNN's Rebekah Riess and Thom Patterson contributed to this report.
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