Americans Killed in Plane Crash Buried in Rwanda
The bodies of 12 American tourists and a pilot who died when their light plane crashed in northwestern Rwanda have been buried at the town of Gisenyi, the U.S. Embassy said Sunday.
Nine of the Americans came from Amarillo, Tex. They had been on safari, photographing wild gorillas in Zaire.
An embassy spokeswoman said that all of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and that because of the difficulties of returning the remains to the families in the United States, the embassy had asked permission for them to be buried at Gisenyi.
“The families recognized this,” she said.
The bodies were buried Saturday at a service conducted by a Catholic priest and a Baptist minister, and attended by embassy officials.
(In Amarillo, Bob Gerald, brother of victim Nancy Gerald, said the family tried to make arrangements to retrieve her remains but were told by the State Department it was not possible, the Associated Press reported.)
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