Three Die, Young Girl
Survives in Panama Plane
Crash
Panama rescue crews
Tuesday afternoon found
the bodies of two
Americans and a
Panamanian pilot from an
airplane crash in a
mountainous area of
dense forest, officials
said.
A 12-year-old American
girl, Francesca Lewis,
survived the crash but
suffered broken bones
and hypothermia, said
Roberto Velasquez,
director of Panama's
civil protection agency.
The three bodies were
identified as pilot
Edwin Lasso, Californian
businessman Michael
Klein and his
13-year-old daughter
Talia, a statement
posted on the agency's
website said.
"It's a miracle the girl
survived because the
plane was smashed to
pieces," said Velasquez
cited by Reuters, adding
her condition was
stable.
The authority said the
plane went down during
bad weather near the
town of Las Ovejas, 340
km west of the capital.
They have yet to
establish an official
cause of the crash.
The media reports said
Klein of Santa Barbara,
37, chief executive of
U.S. hedge fund
Pacificor, and the two
girls were in Panama
vacationing at the his
private island in the
Gulf of Chiriqui.
On Sunday, Panama's
official source said a
Cessna 172 aircraft,
with a pilot and three
passengers on board,
disappeared from radar
while flying from the
Pacific island of Isla
Seca to the town of
Volcan in the heavily
wooded Chiriqui
province.
"They were supposed to
be back on Christmas
Eve," said Kurt
Benjamin, a friend and
associate of Klein.
Fog and heavy rains had
forced rescue workers to
intermittently suspend
their three-day search
for the plane.
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