US News

Five Americans survive after private jet broke into pieces in Honduras

Four employees of a Texas pawn loan company and two pilots were injured when the private jet they were on crashed and broke apart at a notorious Honduran airport, according to reports.

Joe Rotunda, 71, chief operating officer of Austin-based EZCorp, suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung when the Gulfstream crashed Tuesday at Tegucigalpa’s Toncontin International Airport, officials said.

“The other three EZCorp employees have been released from the hospital with only minor bangs and bruises,” company spokesman Jeff Christensen told the Austin American-Statesman.

“We have high expectations for Joe’s and the crew’s full recovery, and we’re anxious to get them back home when they are ready.”

The other employees of the second-largest owner of US pawn shops were John Blair Powell, 50, Nicole Swies, 40, and Bob Kasenter, 71, Christensen said. They suffered minor injuries.

Another American, Alex Castellane Murta, 27, and Venezuelan Joahn Joseph Page Salcedo, 29, were the flight crew, according to KVUE.

The flight originated from Austin, Texas, where the company is headquartered, and crashed off the runway at the airport, which is surrounded by mountains and residential neighborhoods.

Hondurans are known to pray for their lives and burst into applause when their flights land successfully on the 6,600-foot-long runway, according to news.com.au.

The American History Channel has ranked Toncontin as the second-most dangerous in the world, after the terrifying Lukla Airport in the mountains of Nepal.

Pilots must perform a dramatic 45-degree turn during their steep approach just moments before landing.

In 2008, a plane of the former airline TACA with 135 passengers and crew crashed — in nearly the same spot as Tuesday’s crash — on its second landing attempt, killing five people and injuring at least 65.

In 2011, 14 passengers were killed when their plane crashed into a hill near the airport.

The deadliest accident occurred in 1989, when a Boeing airliner crashed into a mountainside on approach, killing 132 people.

Morgue technician Luis Tellez told local news outlets at the time that most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.

“Some of them don’t have arms and legs so we can only identify them through dental records,” Tellez said, according to news.com.au.