2 Colombians dead after Mexican plane crashes near Zoo

When a Super King Air landed on the Southern Highway in November 2010, a massive load Colombian cocaine was found hidden nearby and charges followed for several officers. Another plane fell from the sky in June 2011, on the outskirts of Guinea Grass Village in the Orange Walk district. That plane carried the Mexican flag on the fuselage. No passenger, pilot or cargo was ever found. But on Thursday night from as early as ten, residents on the Western Highway heard the distinctive sound of the engines of a low flying plane, possibly looking for a landing strip. By morning, it was confirmed that the plane had crashed. Both men on board, Colombian Nationals, died on impact.  News Five contacted Minister of Police Dough Singh, who says he has been in contact with senior police officers on the ground but he could not comment. And though the links of Colombian Nationals and a Mexican plane has all the elements associated with narco-trafficking, is it? News Five’s Isani Cayetano visited the scene in Chopper Five.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

At two o’clock this afternoon a team of officers were still processing the scene of a fatal accident involving a single engine turboprop aircraft that crash landed near grassland northwest of mile twenty-eight on the Western Highway.  Sometime around 9:30 on Thursday night residents in the neighboring Mahogany Heights community heard the whirring of an airplane as it hovered dangerously above their homes.  Minutes later they reported hearing a sudden loud noise.  The aircraft carrying two men had crashed in a savannah less than a mile away from the Foster’s residence.

Carol Foster

Carol Foster, Resident

“We had people having dinner over here and we heard this plane very low over the house and we thought this was strange. We wasn’t sure what it was. We carried on eating and we just left it. And about 11:30, the police came and said did we hear a plane crash and we said no, but we heard where the plane was and we have a rode that goes to the back of our house. And we said follow the road and we think it’s back there somewhere, but we are not sure. So he did go around and didn’t find it. And then about 7:30 in the morning, there is a guy who is on the ATV who works with two scientists and they have collared animals back there—he went back there and he went into the bush a little bit and he found a plane with two dead people. Came back here and when he came back here we made the phone call, we called the police and the police in Belmopan came really quickly. That guy went with them back there and showed them.”

Not too far from the scene of the wreckage were the bodies of forty-six year old Hector Velasquez and fifty-seven year old Miguel Rodriguez both Colombian nationals.  The pair had suffered massive injuries and perished in the accident.  Responding to the scene several hours later was a wildlife conservationist who was on a routine tour of the area.

Voice of: First Respondent

“This morning I went to work to check my cameras and thing, driving to the back in my ATV, I saw this white house in the savannah edge. So I wondered who put up another—cause we have a tent out there where we do surveillance with our animals and stuff like that and radio track them. I never even reached my camera site when I saw it was a plane that got the whole pine ridge edge dig up in the savannah. I took a look about ten feet from the area the plane was and I saw a person in the water with his buttocks up and his head is down in the water. So I turned right back immediately and went to Mister Foster, the guy who lives around there, and tell him that a plane had crashed there. He told me I heard it last night but we never knew where it landed. And after that he called the cops and the police they came right after that and I took them there and showed them where the incident happened.

When News Five arrived at the Foster’s residence this morning police had already swarmed the location and the media was barred from venturing beyond this point where two armed officers stood guard.  A few hours later we did our own aerial reconnaissance and found that the badly damaged vessel was being prepared for removal from the scene of the crash.

While the airplane, registered in Mexico, was not found with any illicit cargo, however personal effects belonging to the pilot and his passenger were found including SIM cards, passports as well as global positioning equipment.  Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.

When News Five left the scene police was still looking for any signs of the plane’s cargo. Velasquez died just days short of his November thirtieth birthday.