Dominican Republic plane crash
The pilot and co-pilot died when they crashed on the runway at La Romana International Airport in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican Republic’s national aviation authority said. The authorities stated that there were no passengers on board the plane. According to a statement issued by the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute, the plane declared a state of emergency while it was about 16 nautical miles southwest of La Romana and crashed while trying to return to the airport, Agence France-Presse reported.
Video clips circulated on social media showed a large column of smoke rising from the airport, while fire engines sprayed water to extinguish the fire. According to the Aviation Authority, an investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the crash of the Gulfstream G200 plane.
La Romana International Airport serves the nearby tourist destination La Romana, in a country where tourism is a mainstay of the economy, supporting the Dominican Republic’s population of approximately 11.6 million (1.16 crore). This incident follows a previous fatal accident in 2021, when nine people were killed after a private plane departed from Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo.
