A Cessna 208B Grand Caravan operated by Costa Rica's Nature Air has crashed in Guanacaste province in northwestern Costa Rica.
All 10 American passengers and two Costa Rican flight crew died in the crash, says Costa Rica's president Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera.
The accident took place shortly after the charter flight took off from Punta Islita for San Jose, say reports. Solis says authorities received the first alert of the crash at 12:13.
Photos posted by Costa Rica's public security ministry show the burning wreckage of the Caravan in a wooded area, with only parts of the aircraft's wing and tail still intact.
Costa Rica ministry of public security
Solis says Costa Rican authorities are recovering the crash victims' bodies, and investigations into the crash will begin on 1 January.
Registered TI-BEI, the Caravan was built in 2001, Flight Fleets Analyzer shows.
Nature Air is a privately-owned carrier based in San Jose, operating mostly domestic flights and a handful of routes to Panama and Nicaragua, according to FlightGlobal schedules data.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
