GUATEMALA - Six Killed in U. S. Plane Crash

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Title: Six Killed in U.S. Plane Crash in Guatemala

20 Apr 2000 05:26GMT

GUATEMALA CITY, April 19 (Reuters) - The bodies of an American pilot and five Guatemalan passengers were found on Wednesday a day after their small plane crashed in the Guatemalan mountains, rescue workers and a U.S. charity said.

Pilot Ervin Ashford, from Corpus Christi, Texas, who was volunteering for the U.S. humanitarian group Wings of Hope, was killed with all five passengers when the Cessna-206 crashed near the remote mountain village of Nebaj, 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Guatemala City, said Doug Clements, executive director of the charity organization.

"Ervin served in the Navy, flew for the airlines, then retired and decided he wanted to help mankind using the only skill he had, which was as an aviator," Clements told Reuters. "He was flying a Wings of Hope airplane helping poor, indigent people with health, educational and agricultural supplies."

Authorities still had not determined why the plane crashed after leaving the jungle agricultural village of Mayalan near the Mexican border in Quiche on Tuesday for the city of Huehuetenango to the south carrying passengers from local villages.

Wings of Hope, a nonsectarian organization, does charity aviation work around the world. Its mission in this impoverished Central American nation is medical and economic development assistance to residents in isolated regions.

Three weeks ago a Wings of Hope plane carrying farm equipment and medical supplies crashed in Guatemala City. The pilot, who was the only person on board the plane, survived, Clements said.

In November 1998, 12 U.S. doctors were killed when a twin engine plane supported by the same group crashed in Guatemala as Hurricane Mitch ravaged the region.

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