At least 12 people, including a popular musician, died Monday when a small plane crashed into the Caribbean Sea shortly after taking off from the Honduran island of Roatan, officials said.
The Lanhsa Airlines plane took off at night from Roatan, one of the central American country’s most popular tourist destinations, for the port of La Ceiba on the Honduran mainland.
The plane “made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water,” according to civil aviation official Carlos Padilla.
“The plane nearly crashed on us. “I was fishing,” an unnamed fisherman told HCH television.
The aircraft carried 17 passengers and crew, five of whom were rescued and hospitalized.
The national police posted a dramatic video on social media showing rescue workers carrying a survivor on a stretcher onto the rocky shore. Another video captured a similar scene, with police reporting that only one body remained missing as rescuers continued their search.
Roatan fire captain Franklin Borjas told Reuters that survivors were taken to a nearby hospital but did not provide any information about their condition. Borjas told Reuters that the terrain complicated the search and rescue efforts.
“It’s been difficult to access the accident (site) because there are 30 meters of rocks and you can’t get there while walking or swimming,” according to him. “The divers helping with the rescue have zero visibility.”
Among the victims was Aurelio Martínez, a former Congress member and member of the Garifuna ethnic group with mixed African and Indigenous heritage. Martínez also had US citizenship. His representative, Helene Odile Guivarch, a French citizen, was one of the survivors.
Martínez was born in the Gracias a Dios region of Honduras, located on the Caribbean coast.
“We’re devastated,” his nephew, Ángel Aparicio Fernández Martínez, a musician who played with his uncle, said on Tuesday. “He was the family’s pillar.”
Martínez was a member of Los Gatos Bravos before starting his own group, Lita Ariran. His debut album “Garifuna Soul” took him to Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world.
“He was the greatest model from Honduras of Garifuna music on a worldwide stage,” according to his nephew.
“Martinez’s virtuosic musicianship and passionate performances made him a mainstay of the La Cieba music scene, where he was best loved for his take on punta rock, the high-energy, Garifuna roots-infused pop genre that took Central America by storm in the 1990s,” according to the Kennedy Center. According to police, the plane carried fifteen passengers, two pilots, and one flight attendant.
The crash occurred about half a mile from the island’s coast and was caused by a “apparent mechanical failure” on the British-made Jetstream 41, according to a police statement.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro said she had “immediately activated” an emergency committee comprised of military personnel, firefighters, and others to assist the accident victims.
