BAHAMAS: Small plane crashes in a lake in the Bahamas, killing eight people, witnesses and local authorities say

Record ID: 382148

  • Title: BAHAMAS: Small plane crashes in a lake in the Bahamas, killing eight people, witnesses and local authorities say
  • Date: 6th October 2010
  • Summary: NASSAU, BAHAMAS (OCTOBER 5, 2010) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) POLICE AND EMERGENCY VEHICLES NEAR SCENE DISTANT VIEW OF CRASH SITE EMERGENCY WORKERS DISTANT VIEW OF CRASH SITE POLICE (SOUNDBITE) (English) WILLIAM BETHEL, NASSAU AIRPORT WORKER, SAYING: "Terrible. Everybody's legs, arms, spine, neck broken, head dashed open. Real, real bad scene. All men, all men, no women, all men. No chance to survive, they died by impact. No survivors, none. One of them was on the way to the hospital but he just arrived, pronounced dead. Pronounced dead on arrival. (Reporter asking: so you actually saw it smoking, you said?). Yeah I saw it going up there smoking and that's how come we came out there, first on the scene, you know. And we just ran through the bush and everybody started to swim out and we just brought the whole seven bodies right on the line right there. (Reporter asks: so it was eight in total?). Eight in total in the plane, all dead. (Reporter asks: what kind of condition was the survivor in at the time that you brought him in?) He was just breathing slowly, slowly so we put him in the ambulance and the ambulance took him away and, like I say, we just heard the news that he's dead. (Reporter asks: how would you describe the scene?) Well, like I say, terrible scene, real terrible, terrible, terrible, can't describe it. Arms, legs broken, tissue tear and everything else, real terrible scene. (Reporter asks: do you think it's something that you'll have nightmares about?) Well, I may. Personally, I would not have a nightmare but if anybody else saw something like that, it's a real terrible scene. (Reporter asks: was the survivor conscious?) No, no, he wasn't conscious. He wasn't conscious at all. It wasn't the pilot, we pulled the pilot out, the pilot was dead. We pulled the pilot out. The survivor was a passenger. He was a passenger. The pilot was dead." PLANE FLYING OVERHEAD (SOUNDBITE) (English) WILLIAM BETHEL, NASSAU AIRPORT WORKER, SAYING: "About three quarters of a mile out. Because we just swam, some were walking and the rest swam. Water's very low so that's what probably killed them on impact, because the water's very shallow." EMERGENCY VEHICLES
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bahamas
  • Country: Bahamas
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ZNDXA39ZJMQEZT7Y0VFIQJQE
  • Story Text: A small plane crashed in a lake in the Bahamas on Tuesday (October 5), killing eight people, shortly after taking off from the international airport in the capital Nassau, according to witnesses and local authorities.
    An official at the Bahamas civil aviation authority said the plane, a twin-prop Cessna 402, which can carry up to 10 people, came down in Nassau's Lake Killarney just east of the airport on New Providence Island after setting off on a flight to another island in the southern Bahamas.
    William Bethel, a Nassau Airport worker who said he was among the first to reach the wreckage, described the scene.
    "Terrible. Everybody's legs, arms, spine, neck broken, head dashed open. Real, real bad scene. All men, all men, no women, all men. No chance to survive, they died by impact. No survivors, none. One of them was on the way to the hospital but he just arrived, pronounced dead. Pronounced dead on arrival," he said.
    "I saw it going up there smoking and that's how come we came out there, first on the scene, you know. And we just ran through the bush and everybody started to swim out and we just brought the whole seven bodies right on the line right there. Eight in total in the plane, all dead."
    Bethel said one of the passengers was breathing but unconscious when rescue workers reached the plane.
    "He was just breathing slowly, slowly so we put him in the ambulance and the ambulance took him away and, like I say, we just heard the news that he's dead."
    An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the accident.
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