A Tropic Air Cessna Caravan plunged into the waters adjoining the municipal airstrip in Belize City today. It happened at 2:20 pm when the turbo prop launched off the runway - reportedly after its engine inexplicably cut off. Five passengers and a pilot were on board - but none of them were hurt.
The plane was flying from san Pedro to Belize City when - unofficial reports say - the engine died - and it could not apply the reverse thrust that is necessary for deceleration when landing. With that, it barreled off the runway into the sea.
And while details of the incident are still sketchy, 7news spoke with one eyewitness who said it all happened in the blink of an eye.
Frank Vernon - Witness
"We were all sitting over there and we look we saw the plane coming in and when it get to the center of the runway, it bounce and the 
pilot allowed it to go along, but when it get to the corner he decide to go for the brakes. The rear wheel on the side bend and it went straight to the water. Luckily it didn't fell on the back because people would have gotten hurt. One person was coming from San Pedro and while they rescue him, the ambulance came immediately and took him. The plane didn't have a lot of people and the plane is brand new, just came in two weeks ago."
David Choe - Area Resident
"I was just taking a walk with my dog and I notice in the water there were lots of shiny - appearance in a sense and automatically you could tell that its jet fuel, you could even smell it. I am kind of concern because that could catch on fire."
Reporter
"How did you realize that that's what it was?"
David Choe - Area Resident
"Just from the smell alone. It smells like a whole can of gas was poured over you. Of course I am not covered in gas, so you could definitely know that it's from the water."
Reporter
"How bad is it?"
David Choe - Area Resident
"I would say it's extremely bad. You could see it all along the coastline and I really hope someone comes to go do something about it because it's an environmental risk per se right. I catch my fish from there every morning."
The plane was hoisted out of the water at 5:30 this evening. We could not get any comment from civil aviation today but they have launched an investigation. Tropic air sent out a three-line press release but would not comment further at this time.
Unofficial reports tell us that the Cessna Caravan was recently acquired - the fifteenth in the Tropic Air fleet. We'll have more in this story tomorrow.
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