At least 12 people, including the popular musician, died Monday when a small plane crashed into the Caribbean after taking off from Roatan on Honduras, officials said. The Lancea Airlines plane departed at dusk from Roatan, one of the country’s major tourist destinations, in Central America, to the port of Rashiva on mainland Honduras.
The aircraft “turned sharply to the right of the runway and fell into the water,” said Carlos Padilla, a civil aviation official.
“The plane almost fell on us. I was fishing,” the unnamed fisherman told HCH TV.
The plane was carried 17 passengers and crew, five of which were rescued and hospitalized.
Distribution materials via Policia nacional de Honduras/Reuters
A dramatic video posted to social media by the National Police showed rescuers carrying survivors on rocky shores on stretchers. Another video shows a similar scene, with police reporting that only one body was still missing as rescuers continued their search.
Roatan Fire captain Franklin Borjas told Reuters that survivors were taken to a nearby hospital but no information was provided on their terms. Borjas told Reuters that search and rescue efforts are complicated by the terrain.
“It was difficult to access the accident because there was a 30m rock and I couldn’t get there while walking or swimming,” he told Reuters. “Divers helping with the rescue have zero visibility.”
Among the victims was Aurelio Martinez, a former member of the Congress and a member of the Galihuna ethnic group, a mix of African and indigenous heritage. MartÃnez also held US citizenship. His representative, Helen Odile Gaivark, a French citizen, was one of the survivors.
Martinez originally came from Gracias, Honduras, the Dio region along the Caribbean coast.
“We’re in devastation,” his nephew, Aparicio Fernandez Martinez, also a musician who played with his uncle. “He was a pillar of his family.”
MartÃnez was a member of Los Gatos Bravos before forming his own group Lita Ariran. His first album, “Garifuna Soul,” took him to Europe, the United States and other worlds.
“He was the biggest model from Honduras for Garifna music on a global stage,” his nephew said.
“Martinez’s master musicianship and passionate performance made him a mainstay in the Lasieva music scene. He was most beloved for his take on Punta Rock, a pop genre that infuses the roots of the high-energy Garifuna that stricken Central America in the 1990s,” according to the Kennedy Center.
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Police say 15 passengers were on the plane, along with two pilots and one flight attendant.
The crash, about half a mile from the island’s shore, was caused by a “clear mechanical breakdown” of the British-made Jetstream 41, a police statement said.
Hongjuran President Xiomara Castro said he “quickly revitalized” an emergency committee consisting of military forces, firefighters and others to help victims of the accident.
I contributed to this report.
