SOUTH AMERICA – SAN JOSE, Costa Rica: 10 Americans dead in Costa Rica air crash
A crashed Cessna aircraft with 10 Americans and two Costa Rican crew aboard was still smouldering when rescue workers reached the scene. (Social media via Reuters)
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica: Ten Americans on vacation and two crew members died Sunday when their small charter plane crashed and burst into flames shortly after take-off, officials said.
The Americans had chartered the Cessna Caravan aircraft to fly from a vacation hotspot on Costa Rica’s tropical Pacific coast.
A list of the passengers given by local media showed five shared the same last name.
A family in the suburbs of New York City said five of the dead Americans were relatives on vacation. They identified them as Bruce and Irene Steinberg and their sons Matthew, William and Zachary, all of Scarsdale, in New York state.
“We are in utter shock and disbelief right now,” Bruce Steinberg’s sister, Tamara Steinberg Jacobson, wrote on Facebook. She also confirmed the deaths in an interview with NBC News.
Rabbi Jonathan Blake of the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale said in a statement posted on the temple’s Facebook page that the Steinbergs were involved in philanthropy and local Jewish groups. “This tragedy hits our community very hard,” Blake wrote.
“The government of Costa Rica profoundly regrets the deaths of 10 US passengers and two Costa Rican pilots in the air accident,” which occurred in the country’s northwestern Guanacaste region, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis said in a statement posted to social media.
A US State Department official said: “We confirm the deaths of multiple US citizens in an airplane crash in Costa Rica,” adding that assistance was being provided to the affected Americans.
Costa Rican officials said the plane that came down belonged to Nature Air, a domestic airline that services routes across the country and also provides aircraft for charter.
Guanacaste is a popular vacation destination, especially this time of year, when its pristine beaches and jungle provide a respite for tourists fleeing the northern hemisphere’s winter.
Americans are by far the biggest group of tourists visiting Costa Rica.
The plane that crashed was a single-engine turboprop Cessna 208 Caravan. Its flaming debris was scattered across a wooded mountain close to the beach town of Punta Islita.
Images posted by the country’s public security ministry showed blackened wreckage, some in flames, with only part of the tail recognizable.
The cause of the crash was unknown.
Solis said in his statement that his government “gives its commitment to do everything necessary to work with the relatives of the victims to give them what they need in this difficult moment.”
He said emergency services launched into action when the alarm over the crash was given at 12.13pm (1.30am Monday, Thailand time).
The process of recovering the bodies continued into the night, with investigations into the causes of the accident set to begin Monday.
The San Jose newspaper Nacion reported the plane had taken off from the capital San Jose at 11.37am for the small sealed airstrip in Punta Islita, where the tourists boarded.
The passengers had paid $2,300 for their flight, it said.
The two pilots were identified as Juan Manuel Retana Chinchilla and Emma Ramos.
Former Costa Rican president Laura Chincilla — Solis’s predecessor — said on Twitter that Retana, 52, was her cousin.
“You will remain in our hearts, dear Juan Manuel Retana,” she wrote.
This time of year is particularly busy in Costa Rica’s coastal resort areas as tourists and locals alike spend end-of-year holidays in the sun.
2 Jan 2018 at 00:26
WRITER: AGENCIES
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