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3 die in Star Marianas crash
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Posted on Dec 30 2013
An island unaccustomed to plane crashes took the brunt of it in the wee hours of Oct. 6 when a Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six aircraft operated by Star Marianas crashed east of the Voices of America Tower on Tinian.
The plane crash claimed the lives of three persons—the plane’s pilot, Luis Silva, a 50-something native of Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico; and two Chinese tourists, a 29-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman.
Four other passengers of the ill-fated plane survived the crash and were airlifted from the crash site, located about 4 nautical miles from the airport.
The survivors include the 3-year-old daughter of the 29-year-old Chinese male fatality. All four were initially listed in critical but stable condition at the Commonwealth Health Center. They returned to China some 10 days later.
Star Marianas’ Shaun Christian said that Star Marianas is fully cooperating with authorities to ascertain the cause of the crash.
The plane crash on Oct. 6 was reportedly the third accident in three days for the inter-island carrier.
On Oct. 4, 2013, a smaller Star Marianas aircraft was said to have made an emergency landing on Broadway Avenue past the Tinian airport heading north. The next day on Oct. 5, a Star Marianas aircraft reportedly fell off a ditch at the Tinian airport. No injuries were reported in the two incidents.
The Oct. 6 tragic plane crash also came barely 11 months since another Star Marianas crash killed one and injured six others.
