Three people died yesterday when a small twin-engine turboprop aircraft a Beechcraft 99, registered HH-APA, used by the airline SALSA d'Haiti (Services Aeriens Latinosamericains, S.A. d'Haiti) crashed in the town of Lorie, near Milot while attempting to land, while there was heavy rains in the northern region of the country.

A police officer of the city and an official of the airline alsa d'Haiti have confirmed that only the body of one passenger and two pilots were found in the field of sugar cane, the accident site. Frantz Lerebours, spokesman for the Haitian National Police also confirmed that number. For his part Mayor Michel St-Croix said these are two men and one woman, indicating that the pilots were originally from the Dominican Republic (Vladimir Zorrilla) and Mexico (Manuel Barón) for the another.

An employee of the company SALSA d'Haiti indicates that the passenger (Lê Minh Duc), was a regular customer of Vietnamese origin, working for HNIT a subcontractor of the Haitian-Vietnamese phone operator NATCOM.

This was the last flight of the day for the Beechcraft 99, from the capital, Port-au-Prince, many firefighters, police and members of the Minsutah were on site to search, the place was difficult to access due to heavy rains and flooding.

Let us recall that February 13, 2011 a SALSA Jetstream 31 (HH-ANA) arriving in Port-au-Prince from Cap Haitien experienced issues with the left-wing landing gear locking into landing position due to a hydraulics system failure. The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing with only two of the three wheels locked for landing. This incident provoked more fear than harm. But the aircraft was substantially damaged.

Photo : Beechcraft 99 - HH-APA before the crash

HL/ HaitiLibre