Deadliest Air Disaster in Roatan’s History
Many passengers were thrown out of the fuselage and were floating, often unconscious, with them hip seatbelt attaching them to their seats.
According to some passengers the airplane had behaved as if has issues on the runway before takeoff. “It began moving around and making [excessive] noise,” remembers Liliana Estrada, one of the five passengers who survived the flight.
According to another survivor, a loud bang came from one of the engines as the plane was speeding up before takeoff. The airplane overshot the runway, but was able to become airborne. “From the liftoff to the crash, only around 30 seconds passed.” said one of the survivors, who wanted to remain anonymous for privacy and legal reasons. The pilot most likely made a decision to make a right turn into the open sea, circle around, and land the airplane on the same runway.
“Last thing I remember is being in the water and seeing the flashlight of the fishermen,” said Estrada. “They had to cut my seatbelts with a knife.” Estrada suffered a fractured pelvis, spine, and lacerations, and was transferred to CEMESA hospital for treatment. “It was a surreal experience. I am still in shock. I still cannot comprehend that I was there,” said Estrada.
The front of the fuselage, which held the two pilots, sank quickly. “The people who lost consciousness likely drowned, as they couldn’t keep themselves to keep afloat,” said Estrada.
The crash site was within view of Coxen Hole, the airport tower. There was a fishing boat in the vicinity. One of them was Eduardo Orellana, who was fishing with his friend on his 18 foot open boat called Miss Alaya when he noticed the airplane was in trouble.
They had to cut my seatbelts with a knife.
Orellana noticed the LANHSA airplane rapidly lose altitude from 100-150 meters and crash into the water. “It was flying east and veered to the right,” said Orellana, who was about 100 meters from the crash site. “We got there while the airplane was still floating. There were many bodies floating. It was a terrible site to witness,” said Orellana. “We saw the tail of the plane and heard people calling for help.”
When Orellana arrived at the crash site, the plane’s tail section was above water. Orellana called other boats for assistance and began rescuing survivors. “We pulled out the four that grabbed onto the boat,” said Orellana. The fifth person was calmer and floating without effort, and was left to be picked up by other boats.
There was no dock for the victims, so Orellana brought the survivors to the rocky eastern edge of the airport’s runway. According to Orellana, authorities arrived around 20 minutes after the crash. “The airport boat never came. Who came was the boat from Anthony’s Key and [Honduran] Navy, [in] around 30 minutes,” said Orellana.
People were floating with their heads down stuck by their seatbelts. “[For some] we had to cut seatbelts to free them,” said Orellana. “We still don’t know if the victims died on impact or drowned.”
Orellana believes that more people could have been rescued if airport rescue services were in place. “The airport was not prepared for this type of accident,” said Orellana. “There were no boats, no divers. The only boat they had was on land.” In fact, even the basics were not there: No boats ready to deploy, no dock set up to bring in crash victims. “They should have various [rescue] options. If one side would not work, they should have another site. At least sea was calm that night.”
According to Orellana and survivors the crash exposed lack of preparedness of several local authorities. The airport representative however said the airport rescue crews acted well. “Our response time to the scene was even faster than what’s on the norm,” said Fernando García, manager of the Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport.
The site where the plane crashed was identified that night with sonar, as more fishing boats arrived on the crash scene. Some rescue workers had hope that there were still survivors, and that they had perhaps stayed alive breathing out of an air pocket. A decision was made to attempt to rescue any possible victims trapped in the airplane.
In the evening, authorities contacted Monty Graham, a TDI trimix instructor with Roatan Tec Center Coconut Tree Divers, to attempt to retrieve the body of the last missing person. He decided it was too dangerous for what was most likely a body recovery operation.
To recover a body at night is extremely dangerous.
“They called me that night,” remembers Graham, who decided not to dive at night. “You are putting other people in danger. To recover a body at night is extremely dangerous. They are making impulse decisions,” said Graham. “It’s not a big enough aircraft to create any air pockets.”
The next morning, however, Graham dove to the wreck to retrieve the body of the last unaccounted passenger. Graham descended 48 meters about 1 kilometer south of the concrete barriers of the east end of the runway strip. He found the front of the cockpit completely destroyed and separated from the fuselage.
The fuselage was upside down and pointing west. “The nose was completely torn off the plane,” said Graham. “There was no more cockpit.” This finding suggested a very hard crash landing, but it is not known if the airplane flipped upside down before the crash or after impact with the water.
The plane was resting upside down on a short, sloping ledge. “We tried to open the back door. It was jammed,” said Graham, who had to leave his tanks behind and dive holding his breath to the back of the plane to retrieve the last body. “We had to take out a couple seats [as] the lady was all the way in the back.”
The airplane that was operated by LANHSA was a 35-year-old twin engine British Aerospace Jetstream 32. The motors powering the aircraft were turbo prop TPE331. The accident is under investigation by the airplane manufacturer. Línea Aérea Nacional de Honduras [LANHSA] A 2011 launched airline operating the plane, has ceased operations on April 2 for an indefinite period of time.
The pilot of the LANHSA aircraft was Luis Ángel Araya and his co-pilot was Francisco Lagos. Both of them died in the crash. One of the 12 passengers who died was the former congressman for Atlántida and Garifuna, musician Aurelio Martínez.
Roatan has seen an increase in air traffic and in- air accidents, several of them deadly. In May 2019, a single engine Piper Cherokee Six with the pilot and four passengers on board crashed right after takeoff from Roatan International Airport. The five died after the plane flipped upside down in three feet of water. The reasons for the plane’s engine failure and subsequent crash were undermined.
The most deadly crash until now took place in March 1990, when SAHSA airlines Douglas C-47 crashed on Roatan on a flight from Guanaja. An investigation determined that the aircraft, manufactured in 1944, encountered strong crosswinds and veered off the airport runway, and crashing into the sea.
