Four Americans were among those killed when a small plane they were traveling in crashed shortly after take off from an island off the coast of Honduras on Saturday, according to a spokesperson from the State Department.
According to a report by La Prensa, an independent newspaper in Honduras, the single-engine plane crashed off the coast of Roatán, an island about 40 miles off the Honduran coast in the Caribbean. La Prensa reported the plane fell into the sea minutes after taking off from the Roatán Airport.
Footage from the scene showed emergency responders pulling wreckage from the water.
Officials and news outlets had earlier given conflicting accounts of the victims’ nationalities, as local emergency services initially told Reuters the victims included four Canadians and a fifth victim of an unknown nationality.
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On Sunday, the State Department said four of those killed were U.S. citizens and that the U.S. embassy in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa is providing assistance. A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada confirmed a Canadian citizen was also killed.
The State Department did not release the identities of the victims.
Reuters reported the plane was a Piper PA-32-260 that was headed to the tourist port city of Trujillo, roughly 50 miles from Roatán.
