Ex-CIA Chief Hurt, Wife Killed in Plane Crash

Former CIA Director Adm. Stansfield Turner was among at least 15 people injured in a weekend airplane crash that killed his wife, a U.S. couple and a Spaniard, Costa Rican authorities said Sunday.

Turner, 76, who headed the CIA from 1977 to 1981 under President Carter, was in critical condition in the emergency surgery unit of a San Jose hospital, a spokeswoman at the facility said Sunday night.

His wife, Eli Karin Gilbert, was killed Saturday afternoon when their Taxi Aereo Centroamericano flight crashed into a home shortly after taking off from Tobias Bolanos airport near San Jose, the Costa Rican capital, U.S. Embassy spokesman David Gilmour said.

Also killed in the crash were Siegfried and Therese Richert of San Francisco and Spaniard Antonio Sanchez Diaz, according to Gilmour and Javier Montero, chief of operations for Costa Rica’s Office of Judicial Investigation.

Most of the injured passengers and crew members were in stable condition in San Jose hospitals Sunday. There were conflicting reports on the number of people aboard the twin-engine plane, which was en route to a Caribbean beach.

There was no determination of what caused the crash of the Czech-built plane.

Three people were in the house, including a housekeeper who suffered minor injuries.