By Gustavo Palencia
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A Salvadoran passenger planeskidded off a rain-soaked runway on landing at Tegucigalpaairport in Honduras on Friday, killing five people and injuring38 as it veered onto a road and smashed into cars and abuilding.
The TACA airlines Airbus A320, on a flight from SanSalvador with 135 passengers and crew, lay broken in threeparts and was spewing fuel after the accident, which happenedin heavy rain and fog.
Passengers, some with blood streaming from their faces,stumbled out of the plane over the broken wings as onlookersrushed to pull survivors from the smoking plane, Reuterstelevision images showed.
A paramedic tried to resuscitate one man in the wreckage,while injured passengers sat stunned on the side of the road.One woman with a head wound asked repeatedly, "Where am I?"
Passersby struggled to pry open the cockpit to free thetrapped pilots, one of whom died in a hospital.
The plane circled the airport several times beforeattempting to land in heavy fog, survivor Mario Castillo toldHonduran television.
"Suddenly we felt a big noise and we were all tryingdesperately to get out," Castillo said. "The worst injured werethe people in business class."
The plane skidded off the runway, which was sodden withrain from Tropical Storm Alma, and crashed through a fence intoa busy road, killing two people in their cars. Two passengersalso died.
Thirty-eight people were injured, local emergency serviceschief Carlos Cordero told Reuters.
Authorities closed the airport and transferred commercialflights to a military airport.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.
TREACHEROUS AIRPORT
Tegucigalpa is nestled in hills and has a reputation as oneof the most treacherous airports in Latin America due to adifficult approach.
But Boris Ferrera, an official with Honduras' civilaviation authority, said there was plenty of room for the planeto land.
One of the dead was Harry Brautigam, a Nicaraguan whoheaded the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, TACAsaid. He died in a hospital after being dragged from thewreckage by rescue workers.
"The plane landed on the runway and braked and braked butit seems that the rain and the wet made it slip off," said anairport security official who witnessed the accident.
TACA said in a statement the plane was carrying 124passengers and 11 crew. A local TACA manager said earlier therewere 142 people on board.
"I am thanking God I am alive -- there are other passengerswho are in a very bad way," survivor Roberto Sosa told Honduranradio.
The last time El Salvador's TACA was involved in anaccident was in 1993 when a Boeing 767 airliner overran therunway as it was landing in Guatemala City and crashed intosome houses. Nobody was killed.
(Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Cyntia Barrerain Mexico City and Alberto Barrera in El Salvador; Writing byCatherine Bremer; Editing by Peter Cooney)
