At least 12 people, including a popular musician, died on Monday when a small plane crashed quickly in the Caribbean Sea after taking off from Hondurane Island in Roatan, officials said. The Lanhsa Airlines plane left at dusk from Roatan, one of the main tourist destinations in the country of Central America, headed for the port of Ceiba on the Hondurian continent.
The plane “made a lively turn to the right of the track and fell into the water,” said Carlos Padilla, head of civil aviation.
“The plane almost fell on us. I was fishing,” a fisherman said, whose name was not given, to HCH Television.
The plane was carrying 17 passengers and crew, five of which were rescued and hospitalized.
Policia Nacional of Honduras / Handout via Reuters
Dramatic video Published on social networks by the national police have shown that rescuers carrying a survivor on a stretcher on the rocky shore. Another video Showed a similar scene, the police reporting that one body was always missing while the rescue teams continued their research.
Roatan fire captain Franklin Borjas told the Reuters news agency that survivors had been taken to a neighboring hospital but had provided no information on their conditions. Borjas told Reuters that research and rescue efforts were complicated by the field.
“It was difficult to access the accident (site) because there are 30 meters in rocks and you cannot do it while walking or swimming,” he told Reuters. “Divers helping the rescue have no visibility.”
Among the victims were Aurelio Martínez, former member of the Congress and member of the Garifuna ethnic group, which is a mixed African and native heritage. Martínez also held American citizenship. His representative, Helene Odile Guivarch, a French citizen, was one of the survivors.
Martínez was from the Gracias A dios region of Honduras along the country’s Caribbean coast.
“We are devastated,” said his nephew on Tuesday Tuesday Ángel Aparicio Fernández Martínez, also a musician who played with his uncle. “He was the pillar of the family.”
Martínez was a member of Los Gatos Bravos before training his own Lita Ariran group. His first album “Garifuna Soul” took him to Europe, the United States and other parts of the world.
“He was the biggest model of Honduras in Garifuna music on a world scene,” said his nephew.
“Martinez’s virtuosic musicality and passionate performances made him a pillar of the Cieba music scene, where he was most loved for his point of view on Punta Rock, the high -energy pop genus in Garifuna which stormed Central America in the 1990s”, ” According to the Kennedy Center.
Mathew Imaging via Getty
Fifteen passengers were on the plane, as well as two pilots and a on -board agent, according to the police.
The accident, which occurred approximately half a million in the island coast, was caused by an “apparent mechanical failure” on the British Jetsstream 41, the police press release said.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro says she had “immediately activated” an emergency committee made up of the armed forces, firefighters and others to help the victims of the accident.
contributed to this report.
