Gold’s Gym owner and 5 others feared dead after plane crash off the coast of Costa Rica
Rescue crews and forensic teams from Guatemala, Panama and the U.S. are at the site of the plane crash, which sent a huge fireball into the sky
This undated handout picture provided by the Air Navigation School shows a Boeing 777 at the National Civil Aviation School in Guanajuato, Mexico, on Tuesday. The plane had departed from La Paz Airport in the Mexican province of Chiapas and was heading for JFK International Airport in New York when it crashed in mountainous terrain on Tuesday afternoon with only one survivor. (Air Navigation School via AP)
By Aamer Madhani, Associated Press Granada, Costa Rica — A wealthy New York jet is dead and a Costa Rican jet and two pilots are missing after an Air Costa plane crashed in the mountains of central Costa Rica on a practice flight Tuesday, killing two of four people on board and possibly killing the pilot. In the aftermath of the crash which sent a huge fireball into the sky, authorities have said all those on board are confirmed dead. The crash happened as a Boeing 777 from Air Costa flight 102, the deadliest air disaster in Costa Rica’s history, approached Guanajuato, a city of nearly 5 million people. The crash sent a huge fireball into the sky which exploded in several places, raising thick, black clouds of smoke and sand. The pilot managed to bail out safely, but the plane plunged into a forested area, apparently on autopilot.
The only survivor has been identified by a local news agency as the pilot of a third plane which was still on the ground when the crash happened. He had been drinking in the city. The air traffic services company said the wreckage in Mexico was sent to its maintenance facility in Guatemala, where it will be analyzed by members of the Mexican and U.S. criminal investigation teams.
The flight manifest indicated that the other pilots on board, a Costa Rican woman and a Mexican man, had been drinking on the flight when the crash happened. The official investigation will continue for several