Email

Print

It was breaking and shocking news on Friday night– the sudden and tragic death of 64 year old Belizean multi-millionaire businessman Barry Bowen and four other persons in a plane crash in San Pedro. The two other adults and two children – the youngest a newborn – were killed on impact. Bowen was the pilot and they were all flying into San Pedro for a fundraiser at Bowen's Island Academy. But half mile before landing, tragedy struck. We'll have full coverage tonight including reaction to the tragedy from the former and current Prime Minister and San Pedro Mayor Elsa Paz will tell us why her island is in mourning. But our coverage begins with the crash. We've been on the story since Friday and our team was on the ground in San Pedro on Saturday. Keith Swift has that story.

Keith Swift Reporting,
Barry Bowen's Cessna 206 airplane crashed into the swamps in this remote area of the DFC Subdivision in San Pedro, an estimated half mile south of the municipal airstrip. On the ground, this captured on a cell phone camera in the moments immediately after Friday's crash shows the wrecked single engine plane on its back, with a wing detached, and victims trapped inside. His wife Dixie was on the scene as well as hundreds of other San Pedro residents.

Witnesses say that Barry Bowen was flying low. He was probably already descending in preparation for landing when he hit something. Some say it was the top of a barge, others say it was a house. Whatever it was – it caused Bowen to lose control of his Cessna 206 which flipped and landed in the swamp behind me.

Dave Sherwood, Witnessed Crash
"I will never forget the sound that that we heard when the plane passed overhead and we lost sight of it."

Dave Sherwood and Kai Benson were in the area filming a documentary at the time of the crash.

Dave Sherwood,
"We had been watching planes coming in and out of the area all afternoon and out of the corner of our eyes we were interviewing a woman on her porch. We watched as the plane came in across the house to the left and we never saw it come out the other side and we heard a sound and we asked the woman that we were interviewing what the sound the was, not thinking about the airplane because we had seen so many go by, and she said it was just a truck coming by on the road that might have hit a pothole, and a few minutes later we heard some screaming and we saw some people running."

Bob Gabourel works at the Captain Shark's Boat Yard across the lagoon.

Bob Gabourel, Witness
"All I heard was a bang about 5:25 to 5:30 and so I asked my friend what happened and he told me a plane just crashed on the other side of the lagoon and so we all went and we jumped in the boat which was parked right there and we drove over."

Gabourel took his cell phone with him and captured these images of the terrible and
desperate scene.

Bob Gabourel,
"I saw a male Caucasian lying in less than a foot of water. So my friend first approached him and a guy said he was a tour guide and he knew CPR and whatever. He went and took the guy's head and elevated it out of the water and then therefore they backed him out of the water and took him more on the land."

Kai Benson, Witness
"One man was lying off to the side and there were a few people still stuck inside. We went around and checked if anyone was still moving or breathing but it was a real bad wreck."

Bob Gabourel,
"There was a baby in front of the plane lying with its face up. A guy came and picked him up and put him beside the guy that they picked up earlier because he wasn't dead when we got there. He was still trying to gasp for little air but he was badly broken up."

The footage from the San Pedro Sun shows a desperate attempt to retrieve – at least one passenger who was still stuck in the wrecked aircraft.

Bob Gabourel,
"I saw what appeared to be like a female stuck in the plane and there was smoke coming from the plane also so we didn't want to go close because somebody hollered that the plane could blow up. So I went around and I saw another male person lying outside and I recognized it was Mr. Bowen."

Barry Bowen was dead and so too were his passengers: 32 year old Mike Casey, his wife Jill Casey, and their 2 and a half year old daughter Makayla and their five month old son Bryce – all from Albany, New York. Mike was a teacher at Bowen's school in Gallon Jug.

Kai Benson,
"A bit of a desperate scene, I kind of wish there was a little more help around or someone else to come around and do something really."

Bob Gabourel,
"It is something that I never seen in my life before. I've seen traffic accidents with vehicles but this plane crash, nothing can compare to it, up close like that."

But at least as of now, no one knows went wrong. Witnesses say they did not hear any noise prior to the crash although they recall seeing…

Bob Gabourel,
"The plane stumbles over the lagoon and fell on the other side and bounced and made several turns."

Bowen had been flying for more than 40 years. His Cessna 206, famous for its Rolls Royce engine, crash landed at the municipal airport in Belize City in 2004. The pilot was then his son and no one was seriously hurt. Bowen himself flew daily to Belize City and back on the route. Bowen's close friend and fellow pilot is Mike Cune – the Director of Operations at Tropic Air.

Mike Cune, Director of Operations – Tropic Air
"Very experienced, I'd say he has been flying close to 40 years. He flies everyday. He is a very skilled pilot, yes."

Keith Swift,
"What do you think could have gone wrong?"

Mike Cune,
"I have no idea. There is only person that knows and he is not going to tell us."

Those are questions it will be left to the Civil Aviation Department to answer or at least attempt to answer.

A family source says that the plane which ran off the runway at the municipal airstrip in 2004 was not the plane which crashed on Friday. But nothing is official because the Department of Civil Aviation says it will discuss the circumstances surrounding the crash at a press conference tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.

As mentioned in the story, Jill and Mike Casey are from Albany New York. They got married in Gallon Jug four years ago and were both teachers at the Gallon Jug Community School which was another of Bowen's ventures in a vast business empire. Their bodies will be flown to the states for burial. The school in Gallon Jug will be renamed in their honour.

A memorial service for Sir Barry Bowen was held this afternoon on the campus of the Island Academy in San Pedro. The funeral service will be held tomorrow morning at 10:00 at Saint John's Cathedral in Belize City. It will be preceded by a procession through the streets of Belize City. It leaves from the morgue at 9:00 a.m. down St. Thomas Street, into Freetown Road, unto Mapp Street, into North Front Street over the Swing Bridge and on to Albert Street.
 
It will be an official funeral for this a former senator and one of only three knights in Belize with the KCMG classification, a distinction he shared with Lord Michael Ashcroft and Sir Manuel Esquivel. After the funeral, around noon, the procession – motorcade will leave St. John's Cathedral, go into Water Lane, into Vernon Street, into Central American Boulevard and exit Belize City towards San Ignacio where he will be interred at the town cemetery.

We'll have reaction to the tragedy later on in our newscast.