TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Authorities blocked aircraft from landing at the Honduran capital’s notoriously dangerous airport Saturday, as investigators probed a commercial jetliner crash that killed five people and injured 65.
Investigators from France, El Salvador and the United States “will arrive in the coming hours” for a probe that could last a month or more, TACA airliner chief executive Roberto Kriete said.
President Manuel Zelaya closed the Toncontin international airport for 48 hours to all aircraft. Commercial flights were being diverted to the international airport in San Pedro Sula, 112 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Honduran air officials said large jets would eventually be transferred permanently to a U.S. military airfield at Palmerola. No date was given for the change.
U.S. Ambassador Charles Ford said Honduras would be allowed to use the base for commercial flights when it wanted but certain protocols would have be followed.
The Airbus A-320 slid off the runway Friday morning on its second landing attempt. The plane mowed down trees and smashed through a metal fence before coming to rest about 20 yards beyond the strip, its nosed smashed against a roadside embankment and its fuselage broken into three parts.
There have been calls for years to replace the aging Toncontin airport, whose short runway, primitive navigation equipment and neighboring hills make it one of the world’s more dangerous international airports.
The airport was built in 1948 with a runway less than 5,300 feet long — shorter than that of a small field such as Municipal Airport in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
The altitude of some 3,300 feet forces pilots to use more runway on landings and takeoffs than they would at sea level.
The worst crash associated with the airport came in 1989 when a Honduran airliner hit a nearby hill, killing 133 people.
Used by the United States during the Central American civil wars of the 1980s, Palmerola has the best runway in the country at 8,850 feet long and 165 feet wide and now is used mostly for drug surveillance planes. Also known as the Soto Cano base, Palmerola is about 30 miles north of the capital.
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