52 Aboard Die in Honduras Air Crash
Rescue crews and military planes searching the jungle of eastern Honduras on Friday discovered the wreckage of a U.S-supplied Hercules C-130 plane and all 52 aboard were killed, an official said.
“The plane was found totally destroyed, and all its occupants perished,” Col. Leonel Guiterrez Minera, said in statement. “The magnitude of the impact caused the plane to disintegrate and burn, for which reason the recovery of the bodies has been made difficult.”
U.S. and Honduran troops struggled to reached the isolated jungle site where the plane crashed while flying from the capital to the military base of Durzuna in Gracias a Dios province, officials said.
A military spokesman said the Hercules was carrying cargo, servicemen and some civilians.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman said he did not think any Americans were aboard the craft.
The Hercules was recently purchased from the United States and was equipped with advanced radar. It was flying into a landing strip that was built less than six months ago by U.S. troops participating in joint military exercises.
Honduras is one of Washington’s key allies in Central America.
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