At least five people died in a small commercial plane crash in Haiti on Wednesday, according to police, with the pilot the only person on board to survive.
The aircraft was flying from the capital of Port-au-Prince to the southern town of Jacmel, Pierre Belamy Samedi, police chief in the suburb Carrefour where the plane crashed shortly after takeoff, told AFP.
“I saw five unmoving bodies and at least three injured people who were not in the plane,” he said, adding that the pilot — who is not Haitian — was the only person on board who survived the crash.
Samedi explained that, as it came down, the plane struck a truck carrying consumer goods, injuring people nearby.
The pilot and those injured on the ground were transported to hospital, Samedi said.
“I am profoundly saddened, after this crash of a small plane on the Carrefour roadway which has caused deaths and injuries,” Prime Minister Ariel Henry tweeted Wednesday evening.
“I offer my sympathies to the families of the victims, for whom this latest development has just brought great desolation.”
Air traffic has grown substantially in Haiti over the last year, as gang violence near Port-au-Prince has blocked road connections from the capital to other parts of the country.
