US-registered executive jet crashes in Honduras

A US-registered executive jet with at least six people on board crashed late on Tuesday at Tegucigalpa's Toncontin international airport in Honduran, officials said.

The Gulfstream G 200 jet -- which was flying in from Austin, Texas carrying a group of US business people, including one woman -- skidded off the runway into a ditch and broke in two.

So far, "we don't know whether anyone died," Efe quoted the Assistant Director of the country's Copeco emergency management agency, Carlos Cordero, as saying.

Officials had initially reported that the aircraft may have been carrying seven to nine passengers -- including the two pilots -- but, so far, authorities say they only know of five who were taken to the Escuela Universitario and military hospitals.

The five people taken to the Escuela Universitario hospital are reportedly stable and out of danger, and US Embassy staff have moved them to a private medical center, hospital spokesman Miguel Osorio said.

Toncontin airport manager Claudio Moncada said that the Civil Aeronautics Board will launch an investigation to look into the cause of the accident.

Pavel Espinal, the entity's former chief, said that the accident may have been caused by human error, given that the pilot landed halfway down the runway, likely due to his lack of familiarity with the airport.

--IANS

qd