169 Killed When DC-8 Crashes in Suriname

A Suriname Airways jetliner flown by Americans and carrying 183 people crashed in thick fog today on its third attempt to land at Suriname’s Zanderij Airport, and airline officials said 169 aboard were killed.

Robbe Lachmising, an airline spokesman in Amsterdam, said there were 14 survivors among the 174 passengers and nine crew members on the DC-8 that crashed in the former Dutch colony in South America. He said the survivors were hospitalized.

Dutch state radio, quoting Suriname’s national news agency, said those on board included Suriname’s army chief of staff, Gen. Lew Yen Tai; several other high-ranking officers, and a 14-member Dutch professional soccer team made up of ethnic Surinamese.

A Suriname Radio report monitored in Brazil, Suriname’s neighbor to the south, said the chief of staff was killed.

The dead apparently included two American crew members, pilot Will Rogers and co-pilot Warren Rose, whose names were not on an airline list of survivors. Their hometowns were not available.

Lachmising said the DC-8 crashed at 4:15 a.m. about a mile from the runway in an area known as Cola Creek, at the end of a flight from Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport to the airport outside Suriname’s capital of Paramaribo.

“The cause of the crash is not immediately apparent,” Lachmising said. He said most of those aboard were Dutch and Surinamese nationals.

‘Total Panic’ at Hospitals

A Dutch Radio correspondent, Lucien de Freitas, said that all available medical personnel and ambulances in the city were rushed to the scene and that there was “total panic” at Paramaribo hospitals.

In Washington, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Mike Benson said an investigative team was dispatched to assist local investigators, as is the case with most crashes involving American-made aircraft.

The 20-year-old plane, which was registered in the United States, broke into four pieces but did not explode, and no fire broke out, Lachmising said.

But Suriname radio reports quoted nearby residents as saying they heard an explosion shortly before the plane hit the ground. A U.S. pilot in another airplane, who was not identified, was quoted as saying he saw a ball of fire.