SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An emergency response team on Thursday reached the remote site of a small-plane crash in the Puerto Rican rain forest, recovering the remains of the Caribbean pilot and two U.S. tourists.
Several members of the team rappelled to the crash site from a helicopter while the rest were still hiking their way through the dense vegetation.
The cause of the crash was still under investigation, said Karilyn Bonilla, director of Puerto Rico’s Department of Emergency Management.
The twin-engine plane slammed into fog-shrouded El Yunque mountain Wednesday. The rough terrain in the national forest, about 13 miles east of San Juan, and bad weather prevented rescuers from reaching the site immediately.
The plane, a Rockwell International 690B, took off from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands en route to the Puerto Rican capital.
The couple were identified as Tracy Turner and Ken Clapp, said Jose Daniel Echevarria, a spokesman for the Emergency Management Department. Their hometowns were not immediately known.
The pilot was identified as Ken Webster, owner of Web sta’s Aviation Services Inc. in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Webster, a native of Anguilla, was well-known in the Virgin Islands as a pilot and skilled aircraft mechanic, said friend Mike Foster.
The crash was the third in the El Yunque forest since 2001. A small plane went down in May 2001, killing its pilot. About a year later, another aircraft crashed, killing the pilot and five Americans from Boulder.
