Peru: Tourist plane crashes near famed Nazca Lines
The Associated Press, Lima | Sun, 10/03/2010 10:11 AM
A small plane carrying British tourists crashed
near the famed Nazca Lines in Peru on Saturday, killing all six
people on board, police said.
The victims were listed as four Britons - three men and a woman -
and the pilot and co-pilot, both Peruvian.
The Cessna plane apparently had engine trouble that led it to
crash in a field, Nazca police chief Alfredo Coronel said. Police
were working to recover the bodies.
An official who answered the phone at the British Embassy in Lima
declined to comment without authorization from London.
The Nazca Lines, mysterious geoglyphs etched into the desert
centuries ago by indigenous groups, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site
and one of Peru's leading tourist attractions.
Located about 240 miles (385 kilometers) southeast of Lima, the
glyphs are only fully recognizable from the air, and 30-minute
overflights are popular with travelers.
However there have been allegations of laxsupervision of the
several-dozen aging planes that make the flights.
In February, a Cessna 206 carrying three Chileans and four
Peruvians over the lines crashed and killed everyone on board.
Another crash in April 2008 killed five French tourists, though
their pilot survived.
