A Salvadoran passenger plane skidded off a rain-soaked runway on landing at Tegucigalpa airport in Honduras on Friday, killing five people and injuring 38 as it veered onto a road and smashed into cars and a building.
The TACA airlines Airbus A320, which was on a flight from San Salvador with 135 passengers and crew, lay broken in three parts and was spewing fuel after the accident, which happened in heavy rain and fog.
Two people were still trapped in cars underneath the wreckage five hours later, an aviation official said.
The plane had circled the airport several times before attempting to land in heavy fog, survivor Mario Castillo told Honduran television.
It zig-zagged off the runway, which was sodden with rain from a tropical storm, and smacked into some cars.
"Suddenly we felt a big noise and we were all trying desperately to get out," Castillo said. "The worst injured were the people in business class."
Local emergency services chief Carlos Cordero said five people were killed, including the pilot, passengers and people driving cars hit by the aircraft. Around 38 were injured, he told Reuters.
Some 80,000 litres of fuel had leaked out of the wreckage, posing a serious fire hazard, Cordero said.
Authorities closed the airport and transferred commercial flights to a military airport.
The authorities did not say what caused the accident, but Boris Ferrera, an official with Honduras' civil aviation authority, said there was plenty of room for the plane to land.
The TACA airlines Airbus A320, which was on a flight from San Salvador with 135 passengers and crew, lay broken in three parts and was spewing fuel after the accident, which happened in heavy rain and fog.
Two people were still trapped in cars underneath the wreckage five hours later, an aviation official said.
The plane had circled the airport several times before attempting to land in heavy fog, survivor Mario Castillo told Honduran television.
It zig-zagged off the runway, which was sodden with rain from a tropical storm, and smacked into some cars.
"Suddenly we felt a big noise and we were all trying desperately to get out," Castillo said. "The worst injured were the people in business class."
Local emergency services chief Carlos Cordero said five people were killed, including the pilot, passengers and people driving cars hit by the aircraft. Around 38 were injured, he told Reuters.
Some 80,000 litres of fuel had leaked out of the wreckage, posing a serious fire hazard, Cordero said.
Authorities closed the airport and transferred commercial flights to a military airport.
The authorities did not say what caused the accident, but Boris Ferrera, an official with Honduras' civil aviation authority, said there was plenty of room for the plane to land.
1 comment:
Hey Ablai
I am pleased I wasn't on that plane. What do you think !
dad
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