Six killed as plane skids off runway into houses

SIX PEOPLE died in Guatemala yesterday when a Cuban jet with 314 people on board skidded off the runway and into a crowded suburb near the country's main airport.

The French-owned DC-10 chartered by the Cuban national airline, Cubana de Aviacion, slid into La Libertad neighbourhood in Guatemala City after the pilot miscalculated the landing shortly after 10am local time (1600 GMT).

There were 296 passengers and 18 crew on the aircraft, according to the Civil Aeronautics Institute of Cuba.

Rescuers said the toll could rise as they searched the plane, which was carrying 240 Guatemalan students attending Cuba's Latin American Medical School and other Cuban universities. Among the victims were a 12-year- old boy and two women on the ground. Some 30 residents were injured. A hospital spokesman said three people on the aircraft died; others suggested the pilot had also been killed.

Witnesses said the plane crushed five houses after it shot off the runway.

One of the students on the plane, Carlos Flores, said the aircraft landed without any problem but was then unable to stop. "We landed and then there was like a vacuum. The plane started to slide off and we fell into a small ravine," said Mr Flores.