Small Plane Slams Mountain Kills Three
The small plane on a routine flight from San José's Tobías Bolaños airport to the Parrita area (near Quepos) that would normally take 25-35 minutes, ended in a traggedy that claimed three lines: two crew members and one passenger.

The accident occurred at about the 11 minute mark into the flight in an area called cerro (mountain peak) La Potenciana, 6km from Palam de Puriscal around noon when the Cessna 206, owned by Aerotour, lost contact with the control tower.

This is the first fatal accident this year. Pilot Luis Cantillano, co-pilot Diego Marenco and passenger Guillermo Picado, a director of television channle 7 - Teletica - mobile services lost their lives when the small craft apparently hit the right wing against the mountain peak.

The collision was so violent that parts of the fuselage and the body of the pilot were located a distance away from the accident.

The small aircraft took off from the airport at 11:30am and according to the flight plan was headed for the La Yolanda en Esterillos airport when it would touch down at 12:20pm.

The communications tower at the Juan Santamaria airport make an emergency call to all aircraft in the area and immediately dispatched emergency rescue crews.

The Puriscal unit of the Red Cross arrived in short minutes to the scene of the accident, but heavy rain hampered their work and the aircraft was not where it was supposed to have been, the inclement weather had taken the experienced pilots off course.

MOre than a half dozen private small planes immediately began a search over the area to locate the exact co-ordinates of the downed plane. Low cloud cover, rain and mud made the rescue work more difficult.

The first rescue team to reach the downed plane found the aircraft and two bodies trapped inside. The body of the pilot was recovered hours later.

Darkness, inclement weather and poor lighting forced rescue workers to decide to remove the bodies from the wreckage early this morning, at which time a forensic team will have had time to reach the difficult location and start putting together the pieces of the accident.