Twelve dead including famous singer in plane crash off remote island

At least 12 people including a popular musician died Monday when a small plane crashed into the Caribbean sea quickly after taking off from the Honduran island of Roatan, officials and local media said. The Lanhsa Airlines plane departed at nightfall from Roatan, one of the central American country’s main tourist destinations, headed for the port of La Ceiba on the Honduran mainland.

The aircraft “made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water,” civil aviation official Carlos Padilla said.

“The plane almost fell on us. I was fishing,” a fisherman, whose name was not given, told HCH television.

The fire department said 12 people were killed in the crash while five others were rescued.

Dramatic video posted to social media by the national police showed rescue workers carrying a survivor on a stretcher onto the rocky shore. Another video showed a similar scene, with police reporting that only one body was still missing as rescue teams continued their search.

Roatan fire captain Franklin Borjas told the Reuters news agency that survivors were taken to a nearby hospital but provided no information on their conditions. Borjas told Reuters that the search and rescue efforts were complicated by the terrain.

“It’s been difficult to access the accident (site) because there are 30 meters of rocks and you can’t get there while walking or swimming,” he told Reuters. “The divers helping with the rescue have zero visibility.”