7 News Belize

Plane Took A Dive, Acting PM Survived
posted (November 17, 2017)
The news whipped across Belize at around 9:00 this morning when word went out that a Tropic Air plane had gone down and the Acting Prime Minister Patrick Faber was on board.

It seemed unbelievable at first, but it did happen. Very luckily, no one was hurt. Deputy PM Faber - along with his Cabinet colleague Godwin Hulse and five other passengers were rescued in the waters just off the Placencia coast near the airstrip.

The amazing part is that not only was Faber unhurt, neither was his phone! The Deputy was good enough to snap a few selfies of his strange and surprising plunge.

Daniel Ortiz reports from Placencia that the plane had a most unfortunate, but not unforeseeable mishap: it clipped the top of a passing vehicle at the Placencia Airstrip:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
When a plane takes off from the Placencia Airstrip, these 2 barriers are supposed to go down, and all road traffic is to stop and give way for the plane to take off.

But, this morning, that's not what happened - far from it in fact: a Subaru SUV passed the barrier and came right into the path of an ascending Tropic Air Cessna Caravan. The plane clipped the passenger side of the SUV.

At this time, it is unclear which safety procedures failed and caused the plane to make a forced landing in the sea.

Experienced persons tell us that whenever these planes are loaded, it takes longer for the aircraft to take off. It used up the entire runway, and hit the passing vehicle, veering off course.

A press release from Tropic Air says, quote, "The subsequent loss of airspeed resulted in the pilot conducting a forced landing in the water beyond the end of the runway." End quote.

There were 7 passengers in the aircraft, including Acting Prime Minister Patrick Faber; Minister Godwin Hulse; Christy Mastry; the General Manager of Belize Infrastructure Limited, and several members of the conservation community. They experienced that terrifying crash landing, and were dumped into the sea in front of the Placencia peninsula.

These 4 employees of the Placencia Branch of the Belize Water Services saw the entire accident unfold, and they immediately jumped into action to render aid.

Brandon Torres - First Responder
"From we got there, the barrier on our side went down. So, we stopped. We automatically know that a plane is landing or taking off. So, we stopped, and we watched on the other side; the barrier is still up. So, we said, well, how could that be? But, the vehicle is still coming, so we said, well, this is going to be a close call. Well, the driver continued, and I guess by the time he saw it, I guess he thought he could beat it, but it was right there. It was too late, it hit on the passenger side, and instantly, the vehicle came to a stop."

Donald Sutherland - First Responder
"The plane's wheel hit the vehicle, and from the time I saw it hit, I saw that it started to wobble."

Brandon Torres
"I guess the pilot was trying to bring it back up, and then it just went and went that way. And - in the water. I thought it was gonna maybe blow up or something."

Stefan Andrews - First Responder
"We saw the wheel of the plan slam into the top of the car. All of us just jumped out of our ride and tried to help who was in the car."

Arnie White
"Me, Mr. Sutherland, and all of us tried to take out the gentleman who - well actually, it looked like he was dead to me, because the man's neck looked like it was broken. So, we just tried to take him out of the vehicle, to see what happened, and the man started to move."

Stefan Andrews
"And then, Me and Mr. Arnie White we took off toward the sea, the beach, and we just went into the water, trying to help the people in the water. And when we reached there, a vessel arrived and tried to help same way."

Arnie White
"So, we [went] further on to the plane because we saw everybody standing up on the plane. We decided to go closer, and we thought to ourselves that it's better that we start to swim out there. So, when we swam out there, before we reached out there, a guys from Tropic had a little vessel that we tried to put the guests in."

We were actually standing on the plan to help assist the people to get into the boat from off the plane because the plane was still sinking."

Very fortunately, everyone onboard this flight survived and are safe. Knowing that the crash caused a stir all over Belize, Deputy Prime Minister posted these pictures on his Facebook page. He also commented, quote, "I'm safe guys... all passengers of the tropic flight survived after crashing into the sea ...Rescued at sea off the shore of Placencia."

Brandon Torres
"God is with us and with the people. Everybody survived, minor injuries, and I'm so thankful for my co-workers both of them. He's a licensed tour guide, and he's taking his classes right now to be a tour guide. So, these are trained swimmers. They know about CPR, everything. So, they went into action and helped save those people's lives, Minister's lives, the pilot's lives."

Donald Sutherland
"I would never like to see anything happen like that, you know. Because it can be that all those people in the plane could have died. Even from the driver of the vehicle that hit the plane could have died. But the Almighty works. Nobody is more powerful than the almighty."

So, what happened to cause this dangerous accident, and who's responsible?

Brandon Torres
"From experience, I know it would have happened someday because I used to work at the airstrip, Me and Arnie White used to work at the airstrip, and we have that experience of seeing these planes taking off with a full load, luggage passengers, and have to eat up that entire runway. So, at that time it was even worse because the barriers weren't installed as yet. It got installed now, but the workers from the airstrip, at Tropic Air, they said that they've been having malfunctions with barriers. So, they said that the put in the request to have it fixed, and I guess they didn't fix it, and they said that it was for days. They came out there running and complaining. So, obviously it's Aviation's fault, and it's also the fault of the driver. The driver should have seen the plane taking off, because even if the barrier is still up and you're a driver, and you already know. You see all these signs coming around the airstrip, you'd have to take precautions."

Despite numerous attempts, we could not reach Faber or Hulse for comment today.

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