By IANS,
Tegucigalpa (Honduras) : Four people were killed and 60 injured when an airliner ran off the runway after landing at Tegucigalpa’s Toncontin International Airport, Spain’s EFE news agency reported.
The accident happened a little before 10 a.m. Friday (1600 GMT), when the airliner operated by San Salvador-based TACA airlines burst through the barrier at the end of the runway and plowed into a busy street, destroying at least two cars and breaking into three sections.
Among the dead was Harry Brautigam, president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the plane’s pilot, sources at the coroner’s office said.
The injured passengers were being treated at four different hospitals in the Honduran capital.
TACA airlines has not provided an official passenger list, but the carrier’s manager in Honduras, Armando Fuentes, told EFE that the Airbus A-320 was carrying 147 people, including a crew of five.
Firefighters prevented the plane from bursting into flames and helped passengers come out from the wreckage.
Neither the TACA airlines nor Honduran civil aviation authorities offered any information on the possible cause of the accident.