'More than 10' die in Honduras plane crash

TEGUCIGALPA: A small commercial plane with at least one foreigner on board crashed Monday near the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, killing more than 10 people, emergency officials said.

There were no immediate reports of any survivors among the 12 passengers, and the Red Cross said the pilot died on the way to hospital.

Civil aviation director Cesar Caceres said an American was among the passengers on the plane, owned by local airline American Airways, and a deputy transport minister and a union leader were also reportedly on board.

"There are more than 10 (dead), there are bodies in the cabin of the plane," Red Cross emergency responder Luis Romero told AFP.

The twin-engine Let L-410 Turbolet crashed around 8:00 am local time (1400 GMT) as it made the short journey to the capital from the second city of San Pedro Sula.

The head of the Honduran Air Force, Colonel Ruiz Pastor Lanza, said the military branch received word the flight had lost contact with air traffic control and that helicopters and ambulances had been dispatched to the scene.

The plane crashed near an airport in the Las Mesitas area, "but we don't know the details," Lanza said.

A Nicaraguan passenger jet crashed in 1989 in Las Mesitas, killing 131 people.