Plane crashes near Belmopan, no injuries

Its demise may not be attributed to a Blackhawk helicopter, but the wreckage of a small plane discovered near Belmopan on Tuesday had all the earmarks of an unsolved mystery. Around one thirty in the afternoon a pilot flying near Belmopan spotted a wrecked plane two hundred yards north of the Western Highway on the Banana Bank Road. Police were called to the scene where they saw the Cessna One-forty lying upside down in some bushes. No one was seen in the area but there were bloodstain on the interior of the cockpit, indicating that the pilot along with any possible passenger, received some kind of injuries. The plane is U.S. registered, number N 76767 and has been traced to an American resident of Belize, Sam Riggs. Today News 5 got in touch with Riggs at his home in Consejo in Corozal. He says he was carrying a passenger from Corozal to do some business in Belmopan when around eight hundred feet from the Belmopan airstrip the engine failed. To avoid landing in the jungle or hitting power lines, Riggs banked the plane and tried to land on the Banana Bank Road. The plane rolled over, however, and came to a stop upside down. Fortunately, the female passenger was unhurt and Riggs suffered only a bloody nose. He hitched a ride into Belmopan, conducted his business and returned home–this time by road. He believes that the engine failure was caused by water in the fuel line.