Honduras plane crash kills 1

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) _ A Grupo TACA airplane overshot a runway and slammed to a stop on a city street Friday in the Honduran capital, leaving at least one passenger dead and injuring several others.

Television images showed the plane's fuselage was buckled and the cockpit smashed under a billboard. Firefighters hosed down at least two cars trapped under its left engine.

Ambulances rushed to the scene, and a large crowd of onlookers surrounded rescue efforts.

"We landed ... and suddenly I heard a really strong, loud impact," passenger Roberto Sosa, 34, told The Associated Press.

Mirtila Lopez, 71, said she was talking to another passenger when the plane "left the runway, hit electric cables from a nearby street and then got stuck in the side of a small ravine."

Weather may have been a factor. The plane landed hours after the passage of Tropical Storm Alma, which left parts of the city shrouded in fog.

The flight left San Salvador at 8:30 a.m. local time and had been scheduled to stop briefly in Tegucigalpa and then San Pedro Sula, before heading to Miami.

Nicaraguan Harry Brautigam, president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, was on the plane and died of heart problems shortly after the crash, according to Tito Alvarado, the director of the hospital where he was treated.

TACA general manager Armando Funes did not immediately have details on injuries, but several people were taken to nearby hospitals.

Officials have been struggling for years to replace aging Toncontin International Airport, whose short runway, primitive navigation equipment and neighboring hills make it one of the world's more dangerous landing strips.

The airport was built on the southern edge of hilly Tegucigalpa in 1948 with a runway less than 5,300 feet (1,600 meters) long - shorter than that of a small field such as Municipal Airport in Goldsboro, N.C.

The altitude of some 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) forces pilots to use more runway on landings and takeoffs than they would at sea level. And because of the hills, pilots have to make an unusually steep approach.

The difficulties are complicated during Central America's frequent downpours, and during the springtime burning of farm fields, which produces smoke that often forces the airport to close for days at a time.

In 1997, a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane overshot the runway at Toncontin and rolled 200 yards (180 meters) before bursting into flames on a major boulevard, killing three people aboard.

The worst crash associated with the airport came in 1989 when a Honduran airliner hit a nearby hill, killing 133 people.

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