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A Tropic Air plane made what the company calls an emergency landing in Belize City yesterday morning. The pilot 33 year old Roy Bradley had just left the municipal airstrip and was flying four Americans to the Phillip Goldson International Airport when the engine apparently failed, onlookers said it caught on fire. He had few choices and few moments to make one. He chose to make the emergency landing, 20 feet off the coast of Belizean Beach. Our camera man Paul Munnings trekked through about two miles of dense bush to get to the scene shortly after.

This is where the Tropic’s Cessna crash landed at 9:40 yesterday morning – in these shallow waters near Belizean Beach, close to the old dumpsite. Jane Usher Boulevard residents who live across the river saw it unfold from the air and heard the impact. Valdemar Varela was one of them.

Valdemar Varela, Witness
“Between 9:30 and 9:40 we were out here and we saw di plane the come but after when the plane passed, like two minutes after that we saw a ball of fire behind the plane so my kids said to come outside and see it. When we got out there the plane was under fire.”

Jules Vasquez,
You saw the plane on fire in the air?

Valdemar Varela,
“Yes in the air, we saw the ball of fire. But the kids said the plane caught fire but I told them it can’t be but then the difference of the engine come in. The engine completely started to sound different then.”

Jules Vasquez,
How did the sound change?

Valdemar Varela,
“Well automatically you could hear how the engine died off.”

Joseph Petillo, Witness
“I was having my breakfast when I saw this plane, I heard it first and then when I saw the plane coming, no sound was coming out of the plane and then I saw fire coming under the plane so after that I saw it came but I didn’t see where it landed.”

Witness #3,
“I was on my verandah washing out my baby’s uniform and I just heard something ‘vroom’ over my house and when I looked out I saw smoke and fire. But the way how I see it, the man was trying to find a landing spot. He was trying to find somewhere to land and you saw fire at the back and the plane was coming down.”

The pilot Roy Bradley chose Belizean Beach but it was still a rough landing. The plane’s entire left wing was broken off and its right wing, tail, and top were damaged. According to Tropic Air, the Cessna 208 plane was totalled. Passengers were ferried out of the partially submerged plane and thankfully - no one was seriously hurt.

Joseph Petillo,
“When I was coming, I just saw the two people and a man with bust head, with his head bust and a lady and no one else. I just saw people coming, rushing to the spot and people hollering someone was dead but when I came no one was hurt.”

Witness #3,
“Well I talked to five of them. I hugged up two, a wife who said she wanted her husband’s glasses, and then I hugged up a little girl and told them to just give thanks and praises that they are alive. The pilot was bandaged up, he had a injury and he was bleeding so they wrapped up his head.”

Jules Vasquez,
Are you surprised that no one was seriously hurt?

Valdemar Varela,
“Well I was surprised because really what happened is that he dropped in a swamp. I believe that is what helped the plane, that is what saved the people them.”

Again no one was seriously hurt but the plane was totalled.

Tropic Air’s President John Grief says the plane was a 1996 model but it had in a brand new engine. The Americans who were onboard were Texans 22 year old Jonathon Brady, 21 year old Lindsay Brady, 47 year old David Yorke, and 49 year old Gay Yorke. All four received varying degrees of injury. The flight originated in San Pedro. 10 passengers were let off at the municipal airstrip and the remaining four were headed to the international airport. The investigation is now in the hands of the Civil Aviation Authority. The last time Tropic Air made an emergency landing was in July 2007 when a small Cessna landed in the Port of Belize/Customs area.