Not less than 12 folks have died after a small airplane crashed into the ocean whereas taking off from a Caribbean island off Honduras, officers mentioned.
The Lanhsa airways airplane departed at dusk on Monday from Roatán, one of many Central American nation’s principal vacationer locations, heading for the port of La Ceiba, on the mainland.
The plane “made a pointy flip to the appropriate of the runway and fell into the water”, civil aviation official Carlos Padilla mentioned.
“The airplane nearly fell on us. I used to be fishing,” a fisherman advised HCH tv.
The hearth division mentioned 12 folks have been killed within the crash. 5 folks have been rescued and one is lacking.
The Honduran musician Aurelio Martínez, a outstanding member of the Garifuna music scene, was among the many useless, in line with native media experiences.
Martínez, who between 2006 and 2010 was the nation’s first Black congressman, recorded a string of data, and was described by the Guardian in 2017 as “the best dwelling exponent of the lilting, soulful music of the Garifuna folks.”
Dramatic video uploaded to social media by the nationwide police confirmed officers and different rescue employees carrying survivors on to a rocky shoreline, some in stretchers, as a close-by boat shone a vivid gentle amid the darkness.
The injured passengers included a 40-year-old French citizen, who will likely be transferred to hospital within the metropolis of San Pedro Sula on the mainland, mentioned Maj Wilmer Guerrero of the fireplace division.
Fifteen passengers have been onboard the airplane, together with two pilots and a flight attendant, police mentioned.
The crash, which occurred a few kilometer from the coast, was brought on by an “obvious mechanical failure” on the British-made Jetstream 41, the assertion added.
The Honduran president, Xiomara Castro, mentioned she had “instantly activated” an emergency committee made up of the armed forces, firefighters and others to help the victims of the accident.
Agence France-Press and Reuters contributed reporting
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