Two Italian men, pilot Marcos Ponce and Paolo Barbi, and two Dominican women, Gloria Rodriguez and Bladimirca Rodriguez, died when their plane crashed into the Vuelta de la Selva Mountain in the province of Monte Plata, north of Santo Domingo. The plane took off on Tuesday, 8 June at 2:45pm from Herrera en route to Santiago. The crash has been initially attributed to bad weather en route.