Two Argentines escaped with their lives Friday morning, after a small plane crashed into a well-populated residential area of Costa Rica's capital without causing deaths or serious injuries.
The accident occurred Friday morning in the area of Pavas, shortly after take-off from an airport west of San José.
The pilot managed to touch down in an empty lot, but the plane was destroyed by the impact. It landed close to a school and various houses.
"The pilots are fine, they managed to get out of the aircraft by their own means," Costa Rican Civil Aviation Director Guillermo Hoppe told reporters at the scene of the accident.
Government photos showed the crumpled Cessna lying in a street near apartment buildings.
The Ministry of Public Safety identified the occupants as two 23-year-olds of Argentine nationality. Firefighters said they were in stable condition and were taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Without revealing the identity of the pilots, Hoppe said that Argentine Civil Aviation had said that the two pilots had acquired the plane in the United States.
"They left [local airport] Tobías Bolaños and had a hard time sustaining themselves in the air," the director added.
he plane was bound for the city of David, Panamá, as part of a trip the two were making from the United States to Argentina.
Aviation officials were investigating the cause of the accident.
Members of the Red Cross who arrived at the scene of the accident indicated that the pilots had suffered minor injuries. They were taken to a nearby hospital in the aftermath of the crash.
- TIMES/AP/AFP
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