DETAILS HAVE emerged of the crash on 9 August of an Aviateca Boeing 737-200 on a flight from Miami, Florida, to San Jose, Costa Rica.
The US-registered aircraft, operated by Guatemala's national airline Aviateca, was preparing to land for a scheduled stopover at San Salvador's international airport, when it ploughed into the Chichontepec volcano, some 60km (38 miles) east of San Salvador, killing all 65 passengers and crew.
The airline's president, Frederick Melville, has attributed the crash to a violent thunderstorm. The aircraft's black box had not been found as Flight International went to press.
The crash was the worst in San Salvador's history, and Aviateca's first accident since it was privatised in 1989.
Rescue teams have found the wreckage of a Bouraq Indonesia Airlines British Aerospace HS.748 turboprop, which went missing with three passengers and seven crew on board on 9 August. The 748, found on a mountain near Kaimana in Irian Jaya province, was chartered by a fishing company, to transport employees. All ten people perished in the crash, the cause of which remains unknown.
Source: Flight International
