A dozen people were killed in a small plane crash off the coast of Honduras Monday night, with a popular musician and congressman among the dead passengers.
The flight, operated by Honduran airline Lanhsa Airlines, crashed into the Caribbean Sea shortly after takeoff from Roatan Island.
The Jetstream aircraft was destined for the port of La Ceiba on the mainland when something went awry, sending the plane into the ocean just half a mile from the island.
According to investigators, a "mechanical failure" was behind the tragedy, which left five survivors out of the 17 passengers and crew.
The plane "made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water,” civil aviation official Carlos Padilla said.
The tragedy was witnessed by fishermen, who aided in the desperate rescue effort. A dramatic video showed a woman being carried on a stretcher onto a rocky shore.
“The plane almost fell on us. I was fishing,” fisherman Aldair Aleman told the Honduran news outlet El Heraldo.
“We set out to the crash site. When we got closer, we saw the dead bodies first,” Aleman said. “When we got even closer to the plane, we heard people calling for help, to be rescued."
“We chose to rescue the ones who were still alive,” he added. “Even though we found the dead ones first and the dead were a priority, those with a chance to survive were a higher priority.”
The victims include Aurelio Martínez Suazo, a former Honduran congressman and musician from the Afro-indigenous Garifuna ethnic group. Considered an icon in the Garifuna community, his death has left a shock throughout Central America.
“We’re devastated,” his nephew Ángel Aparicio Fernández Martínez, said Tuesday. “He was the family’s pillar.”
“He was the greatest model from Honduras of Garifuna music on a worldwide stage,” his nephew said.
The State Department confirmed the death of a U.S. citizen. While Suazo has dual U.S. citizenship, the State Department did not identify the American victim.
"We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected," a State Department spokesman said.
"We can confirm the death of a US citizen in the plane crash. Out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones during this difficult time, we have no further comment at this time."
