Plane Crash off the Coast of Honduras Claims at Least 12 Lives
At least 12 people have been killed after a plane crashed off the Caribbean coast of Honduras on Monday evening, officials said.
The aircraft – operated by Honduran airline Lanhsa – crashed into the sea within a minute of take-off from the island of Roatán.
The Honduran national police and fire department separately said five people had been rescued, while one person is yet to be found.
The cause of the crash is not yet known, but Roatán’s mayor told local media it wasn’t because of the weather, which was normal. The Honduran Civil Aeronautics Agency said an investigation was under way.
The Jetstream 32 plane was headed to Golosón International Airport in La Ceiba, Honduras, after taking off from the island’s Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport at 18:18 local time (00:18 GMT on Tuesday).
The jet “made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water,” according to civil aviation officer Carlos Padilla, who was cited by the AFP news agency.
The administration sent a social media statement expressing “solidarity” with the victims’ families.
“The Government of Honduras deeply regrets the tragic accident in Roatán and joins in the national mourning,” it stated.
President Xiomara Castro Activates Emergency Committee Following Plane Crash in Honduras
President Xiomara Castro of Honduras “immediately activated” the nation’s emergency committee after the crash, which included the Ministry of Health, the military, the police, the fire department, and the Red Cross.
She wrote on X that the committee staff was “working tirelessly” to help.
Adding, “May God protect people’s lives,” Castro said.
Officials posted videos on social media showing rescue crews using stretchers and tiny boats to work in the dark along a rocky shoreline.
The Honduran military stated in a photo-rich post on X that air force planes transported injured survivors to a hospital in San Pedro Sula.
Well-known Honduran musician Aurelio Martinez Suazo was one of the deceased, according to sources in the local media.
Suazo belonged to the Garifuna, a mixed-race and Afro-Caribbean group with a unique musical style that originated on the island of St. Vincent.
