TEGUCIGALPA: A plane crashed just off the Caribbean coast of Honduras on Monday night minutes after taking off from Roatan Island, killing seven people, while 10 others were pulled out from the wreckage alive, authorities said.
\nThe Jetstream aircraft operated by Honduran airline Lanhsa was carrying 14 passengers and three crew members, according to the country\u2019s transport minister, who said the wreckage was found about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) off the island\u2019s coast.
\nAccording to the flight manifest shown by local media, the passengers included a US national, a French national and two minors. The plane was scheduled to fly to La Ceiba airport on the Honduran mainland.
\nRoatan fire captain Franklin Borjas confirmed the death toll, while both police and fire officials detailed the rescue efforts underway.
\nWell-known Garifuna musician Aurelio Martinez Suazo was among the dead, according to fire officials.
\nDramatic video uploaded to social media by the national police showed officers and other rescue workers carrying survivors onto a rocky coastline, some in stretchers, as a nearby boat shone a bright light amid the darkness.
\nThe cause of the crash was not immediately clear. The airline did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
\nBorjas told Reuters the survivors were transported to a nearby hospital, while also confirming that the crash took place shortly after the plane\u2019s takeoff from the island.
\nRoatan, the largest of the Bay Islands just off the Honduran coast, is a popular tourist attraction and famed for its vibrant coral reefs.
\nBorjas noted that adverse conditions complicated the search and rescue efforts.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been difficult to access the accident (site) because there are 30 meters of rocks and you can\u2019t get there while walking or swimming,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe divers helping with the rescue have zero visibility,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEGUCIGALPA: A plane crashed just off the Caribbean coast of Honduras on Monday night minutes after taking off from Roatan Island, killing seven people, while 10 others were pulled out from the wreckage alive, authorities said. The Jetstream aircraft operated by Honduran airline Lanhsa was carrying 14 passengers and three crew members, according to the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78561,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78546\/revisions\/78561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}