The fatal crash took place minutes after the mainland-bound Jetstream aircraft took off from the Honduran island of Roatan on Monday night.
The Lanhsa airline flight was carrying 14 passengers and three crew members, according to the country’s transport minister, who said the wreckage was found about 0.6 miles off the island’s coast.
A dozen people were killed and five more were rescued after an ‘apparent mechanical failure’ sent the plane spiraling into the sea, CBS reports.
Civil aviation official Carlos Padilla described how the aircraft took off and ‘made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water’.
A fisherman below told HCH television he narrowly avoided being struck.
‘The plane almost fell on us. I was fishing,’ he explained.
Among those killed was popular Honduran musician and politician Aurelio Martinez.
