The pilot, a 10-year old boy and two other passengers of a Cessna 172 are alive today after a “miraculous” landing in the middle of traffic at Kilometer 9 of the Duarte Highway. The accident happened as the pilot was preparing to land at Herrera International Airport, adjacent to the highway. The accident occurred yesterday evening, causing a large traffic jam as hundreds of onlookers converged on the scene. The aircraft passengers received only slight injuries and were taken to the Plaza de la Salud for a checkup.
All were pronounced to be out of danger, according to El Caribe. As crowds gathered around the wreckage of HI-533-CA whose nose, tail and wings were destroyed in the accident, the assistant to the director general of Civil Aviation told the people that “This is nothing, just a lot of people. The pilot got hit in the nose, but nothing serious”. The young boy walked away from the wreck, as did the two other passengers. Several vehicles on the ground were very seriously damaged as shown in the photo on Listin Diario’s front page.
One newspaper report speculated that the airplane had run out of fuel, but the authorities said that a report on what happened would be available on Tuesday.