Plane crash kills 14 in Honduras

Feb 15, 2011 |

Tags:

disaster

Tegucigalpa: A small Honduran commercial plane crashed near the capital, Tegucigalpa on Monday, killing all 14 people on board, including a senior government official and a top union leader, authorities said.

Two Americans and a Canadian were listed as passengers on the Central American Airlines' flight to Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa, said Melvin Duarte, spokesman for the Attorney General's office.

U.S. and Canadian embassy officials said they would release details on the victims after notifying their families.

The Let L-410 Turbolet crashed in the town of Las Mesitas, about three miles (five kilometers) from south of the airport.

The daily scheduled flight was carrying two pilots and 12 passengers, including Assistant Secretary for Public Works Rodolfo Rovelo, United Workers Federation of Honduras leader Jose Israel Salinas and former Economy Secretary Carlos Chain, said Central American airline manager Felix Pacheco.

The government declared three days of national mourning in honor of the government officials killed.

The cause of the crash is being investigated, but there was fog in the area at that time. Tincontin airport is considered dangerous because of its short runway and surrounding hills.

A pilot survived the crash but died on the way to a hospital, firefighters spokesman Jaime Silva said.

The National Service of Civil Aviation said the accident happened a little after 8 a.m. (8 a.m. EST; 1300 GMT), minutes after air traffic controllers instructed the pilots to land.

At least 10 planes have crashed in and around the Toncontin airport since October 1989, when a Honduran commercial jet went down, killing 131 people.

Toncontin's short runway, old navigation equipment and neighboring hills make it one of the world's more dangerous international airports. It was built on the southern edge of hilly Tegucigalpa in 1948 with a runway less than 5,300 feet (1,600 meters) long.

Central American Airlines manager Felix Pacheco said the plane which was en route to the capital city as per its daily schedule crashed after it took off form the coastal city of San Pedro Sula at 7 a.m. (1300 GMT), Xinhua reported.

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