Plane crash in Honduras leaves five dead

In regional news, a TACA Airbus 320 carrying one hundred and twenty four passengers and crew slid off the runway at Toncontin International Airport in Tegucigalpa Honduras around eight thirty local time this morning and broke into three parts, killing five people. The plane was on the last leg of a scheduled route from Los Angeles to San Salvador then on to Tegucigalpa. Among the dead was president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, Harry Brautigam. At least sixty-five other passengers from Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras had to be taken for medical treatment. Some who had to be rescued had inhaled smoke, the result of a fire that broke out after the crash. TACA manager, Armando Funes, said the aircraft was completely destroyed. A survivor told a Honduran T.V. station that the plane had circled the airport several times before landing in heavy fog.