16532: (Hermantin) Miami Passenger plane explodes, crashes in northern Haiti; 21 killed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Sun, Aug. 24, 2003

Passenger plane explodes, crashes in northern Haiti; 21 killed
By The Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A commuter passenger plane exploded and crashed
after take off Sunday from Haiti's northern city of Cap-Haitien, killing all
21 aboard, news reports said.

Five minutes after it took off Sunday afternoon, witnesses saw smoke
billowing from the twin-propeller plane which sent distress signals to the
Cap-Haitien control tower, private Radio Maxima reported.

There was an explosion and crash, witnesses told the radio station's
director Jean-Robert Lalane, who spoke to The Associated Press by telephone
from the scene. It was unclear whether the explosion came before or after
the crash, he said.

Lalane said thousands of people had gathered around the fuming wreckage at
Lory, about three miles west of the city, in a sugarcane field strewn with
the charred bodies of the 19 passengers, pilot and co-pilot.

The 19-passenger Czech-made Let L-410, which was on its way to Port-de-Paix,
belonged to Tropical Airways, a Haitian company that runs daily flights to
and from major Haitian cities, news reports said.

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