Only one death in Colombian plane crash
By Daniel Brody, Editorial Director
Monday, August 16, 2010
An Aires Boeing 737 plane attempting to land on the Colombian resort island of San Andres on Monday morning ended up crashing, resulting in one death and over 100 injuries.
The low death toll is astonishing, given that 127 people were aboard the plane, and that the crash divided the plane into three pieces.
The lone death, a 73 year-old Colombian woman named Amar Fernandez de Barreto, came from a heart attack, and not from physical injury related to the accident.
Five of the plane's passengers are hospitalized in critical condition.
As of this writing, it is uncertain what caused the crash.
A national police report asserts that strong winds blew the plane off course, while Pedro Gallardo, governor of the department of San Andres y Providencia, told reporters that lightning struck the plane.
Colombia's Transport Minister German Cardona said that the plane was new and well-maintained, and blamed the weather in some form for the crash.
The crash happened at 1:49 a.m. local time at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla airport. According to a police report, the plane went out of control about 250 feet before it was due to land at San Andres.
Colombian officials credited the plane's pilot, Capt. Wilson Gutierrez, for making the best of the situation.
Gen. Orlando Paez of Colombia’s national police told local press that “The pilot’s professionalism prevented the plane from going off the runway.”
Paez was seconded by Colombian Air Force Colonel David Barrero, who said that "the skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport."
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