Twenty die in plane crash on Caribbean island

Twenty die in plane crash on Caribbean island
REUTERS

Paris, March 25: Twenty people, mainly Frenchtourists, died when a small plane crashed while trying to land on the French Caribbean holiday island of St Barthelemy, a police official said on Sunday.

He said the Air Caraibes Twin Otter was coming in to land ata notoriously difficult airstrip when it hit a villa and burst into flames at around 4:30 P.M. (2030 GMT) on Saturday.

All 17 passengers and two crew members died, an airlinespokesman told Reuters by telephone from the island. A man on the ground was also killed and his wife was seriously injured.

"The majority of the dead were French, though an Americanwoman also died," the spokesman said. "Most apparently came from mainland France and were probably tourists. There were no children among the dead," he added.

The names of the victims will be released when theirfamilies have been informed.

The propeller-driven plane had taken off shortly before fromJuliana airport on the nearby Dutch Caribbean island St Maarten.

An eyewitness told French television station LCI that thesmall plane had misjudged its approach to the airstrip, which is hemmed in by a hill at one end and the sea at the other, and increased its power to try to get out of trouble.

"It got its landing wrong. It rose too high, spun and thendived. I saw that with my own eyes. It came down very, very quickly and crashed into a house," said Luc Fischer.

LCI reported that rescuers had found the aircraft's blackbox flight recorder, which should help investigators understand why the plane came down.

"The plane crashed into a villa as it was coming in to land.We have no precise information as to why this should have happened," the airline spokesman said.

The airstrip in St Barthelemy is small and pilots arerequired to have special training to land there.

"It is a very, very dangerous strip...with the sea at oneend and a hill at the other," Fischer said.

The Internet website for St Barthelemy warns visitors thatreaching the sunny island by Air can sometimes be tricky. "For many, the landing, especially on a windy day, is an adventure in itself," it says jauntily.

St Barthelemy, often called by its abbreviation St Barts.,is a French territory in the northeastern corner of the Caribbean, 125 miles (201 km) East of Puerto Rico and 15 miles (24) southeast of St Maarten.

It is little more than eight square miles and is a popularholiday resort for French tourists.

French President Jacques Chirac sent a message of condolenceto the families of the dead, and the airline has set up a crisis telephone number for worried friends and relatives. The number is 00.33.5.90.211238.