10 US Tourists, 5 of them members of the same family, Bruce, Irene, Matthew, William and Zachary Steinberg along with Leslie Weiss, Sherry Wuu, Amanda Geissler, Thibault Astruc and Charles Palmer all found tragedy today in Costa Rica, when the Nature Air light aircraft they boarded on route to the Juan Santamaria Airport, crashed 10 minutes after takeoff in the mountains of Guanacaste and exploded upon impact with the ground.

Aside from the 10 passengers, the pilot Juan Manuel Retana Chinchilla, cousin of former President of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla, and Ema Lucía Ramos Calderón, both Costa Rican also lost their lives.

The causes of the crash that took place this Sunday in Costa Rica are still unknown, in a press conference held by the Director of Civil Aviation, representatives of the Fire Deparment and the Costa Rica Red Cross, the flight plan was detailed:

“The Nature Air aircraft TI-BEI left at 10:15 from the Juan Santamaría Airport without passengers and estimating its arrival to the runway of Punta Islita at 10:48; however, because of windy weather conditions the pilot decided to land in the Tambor airstrip instead and wait for better conditions, the aircraft landed at 11:01 a.m. in Tambor; at 11:15 a.m. the aircraft takes off again towards Punta Islita where this time it lands at 11:35 a.m. At 12:10 p.m. the aircraft takes off from Punta Islita with 10 passengers aboard and 10 minutes later the emergency alert is received”, explained Enio Cubillo, director of Civil Aviation.

“When it comes to the weight and balance of the aircraft, all documentation and information seems correct, it doesn’t seem that the accident had anything to do with that”, stated Cubillo, who also confirmed that the pilot was experienced, with approximately 15000 hours of flight; a mechanical failure, weather conditions or a human factor are the three elements that will now have to be evaluated by the authorities during the investigation of this accident.

Former President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, posted on her Facebook account, “Fatality interrupts our family’s celebration. Our beloved cousin died as part of the crew of the fallen aircraft in Guanacaste. Strength to his children and brothers and peace to his soul. You will remain in our heart dear Juan Manuel Retana”.

Still after 6 p.m. this evening rescue teams were working on retrieving the remains of the victims. “We are working on extracting the bodies, to the extent possible using natural light; however, the night is almost here s we are equipped with artificial light to continue with the actions. We are trying to work as fast as possible to give peace to the families of the victims”, commented Marlon Soto, coordinator of Regional Operations of the Red Cross.