A small plane crashed while taking off from the Honduran island of Roatan on Monday, leaving 12 people dead. Among the victims was prominent musician and Honduran politician Aurelio Martinez.
The civil aeronautics agency of Honduras said in a statement that the accident occurred on March 17 shortly after 6 p.m. local time at the Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport when a Jetstream 32 carrying 15 passengers and two crew members attempted to depart for La Ceiba, a port city on the northern coast of Honduras.
Moments after takeoff, said the statement translated from Spanish, the aircraft plunged into the Caribbean Sea. Authorities have not yet confirmed what caused the crash.
The National Police of Honduras confirmed
via a social media post that only five of the 17 people onboard survived the initial impact. By the early morning hours, all but one body had been recovered from the water, they said.
Rescue and recovery efforts continued into Tuesday morning and as of 10 a.m. local time, the agency posted photos of first responders continuing to work on the rocky shoreline. Survivors were also assisted by local fishermen working close to the crash site, local outlets reported.
Musician and congressman Aurelio Martinez among those killed
Among those killed was Aurelio Martinez, a prominent Honduran musician known for his involvement in the Garifuna scene, his record label confirmed in a statement Tuesday. Martinez also held the distinction of having served as the first Afro-Honduran member of the National Congress of Honduras.
Martinez founded Lita Ariran, one of the first Garifuna musical groups to enjoy national and international success, according to Real Worlds Records. The Garifuna are an ethnocultural group descending from enslaved African people and indigenous tribes including the Arawak, Kalinago and Afro-Caribbean peoples who originated on the Caribbean islands and settled on the South American Caribbean coast.
“A prodigy of percussion, Aurelio began performing at Garifuna ceremonies when just a boy, he grew into an innovative professional artist forming the Lita Ariran ensemble and became a mainstay of the La Ceiba music scene…His loss will be felt beyond the Garifuna people to audiences worldwide who love and cherish Caribbean culture,” said a statement from Real Worlds Records.
The investigation into the cause of the crash and recovery efforts are ongoing.
