Colombia plane crash in bad weather kills one, injures more than 120

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 16, 2010 -- Updated 1721 GMT (0121 HKT)

The Aires airline 737-700 jet lies in two parts after crashing early Monday on the Colombian island of San Andres.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: National police said 124 people were injured and six were not
• There were conflicting reports as to what caused the crash
• The plane split apart when landing on a Colombian island airport
• Passenger list includes: 6 Americans, 5 French, 4 Brazilians, 4 Costa Ricans, 2 Germans

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(CNN) -- One passenger was killed when an airplane crashed in bad weather and broke apart when attempting to land early Monday on the island of San Andres, Colombia, officials said.
National police said 124 people were injured, many of them scattered on the darkened runway when emergency personnel arrived in the predawn hours. Six people, including an 18-month-old boy, were not injured, the national police said.
Some of the patients are in critical condition, said Robert Sanchez, director of the Amor de Patria Hospital.
There were conflicting reports as to how many people were aboard the Aires airline Boeing 737-700 jet when it crashed around 1:49 a.m. The Colombian national police initially said the flight had 131 people -- 121 adult passengers, four minors and six crew members. A list the police released later, however, indicated 127 people were on board -- 121 passengers and six crew members.
The passenger list included six Americans, five French, four Brazilians, four Costa Ricans and two Germans, said Col. Hector Carrascal, director of navigation services at the Colombian Civil Aviation Authority.

Video: Colombian airliner breaks into pieces

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• Colombia
• Air Disasters

Police identified the passenger killed as Amar Fernandez de Barreto. The passenger manifest, which goes by last name first, lists a Barreto Fernandez Paola Andrea.
There also was conflicting information about what caused the crash. The report from the national police said a downdraft may have shaken the airplane just as it prepared to land. But Pedro Gallardo, the governor of San Andres y Providencia state, told CNN en Español that lightning hit the plane. The pilot also reported a lightning strike, El Tiempo newspaper said.
A storm was reported in the area but not at the airport, Carrascal said.
CNN World Weather confirmed the presence of multiple lightning strikes around the San Andres airport at the time of the plane crash. Analysis of data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network indicates there were 11 strikes within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of the runway in a five-minute span around the time of the accident.
The weather event occurred as the plane was about 260 feet (80 meters) before the start of the runway, Carrascal said. Wreckage was spread about another 328 feet (100 meters) on the runway, officials said.
Photographs of the airplane on the runway show it broke apart, with the nose and first eight rows of seat pointing in one direction and the rest of the aircraft almost pointing in the opposite direction. A release by the national police said the plane split into three parts.

Flight 8250 had taken off from Bogota, Colombia's capital, shortly after midnight, police said.