ECUADOR: President Correa arrives at scene where plane crashed into buildings killing 6
Record ID:
382736
ECUADOR: President Correa arrives at scene where plane crashed into buildings killing 6
- Title: ECUADOR: President Correa arrives at scene where plane crashed into buildings killing 6
- Date: 22nd March 2009
- Summary: QUITO, ECUADOR (MARCH 19, 2009) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF BUILDING WHERE PLANE CRASHED WITH FIREFIGHTERS VARIOUS OF BROKEN WINDOWS, SMOKE AND FIRE FIREFIGHTERS ENTERING BUILDING VARIOUS OF RESCUE WORKERS CARRYING PERSON IN STRETCHER FROM CRASH SCENE TO AMBULANCE FIREFIGHTERS SHOVELLING PLANE REMANS AND ASHES FIREFIGHTERS SPRAYING WATER ON ASHES VARIOUS OF ECUADOREAN PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA ARRIVING AT CRASH SCENE
- Embargoed: 6th April 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ecuador
- Country: Ecuador
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVACABMA675PU18EWX3EAEEQ0W0K
- Story Text: A small military plane crashed into two buildings in the fog-bound capital of Ecuador on Thursday (March 19), killing at least six people, authorities said.
Government officials said the three army personnel and two civilians aboard the twin-engined Beechcraft 200 plane died in the crash and one other person was killed on the ground.
Emergency officials said the plane hit two buildings in a wealthy neighborhood on the northern side of the city before it crashed in a backyard.
Firefighters could be seen battling the blaze as rescue workers carried this person onto an ambulance.
Later, President Rafael Correa visited the crash scene.
The cause of the accident was still unclear. Fog often causes aviation difficulties and delays in the Andean mountain city. In the last two decades several planes have crashed in the hilly, Gonzalez Suarez neighborhood that stands on the path of planes landing in the capital.
In the 1990s two separate air crashes in the same neighborhood killed the country's top military chief and a government spokesman.
In September last year, a passenger plane carrying more than 60 people skidded off a runway and crashed through a brick perimeter wall before stopping near a busy road in Quito, but no one was seriously hurt.
Quito officials have started the construction of a new international airport outside the city. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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