PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Eleven United Nations peacekeepers were killed Friday when their surveillance plane crashed into a mountainside in Haiti during a routine patrol, United Nations officials said. A rescue team confirmed that there were no survivors among the 11 crew members and military personnel on the plane, a Casa 212, when it went down near the town of Fonds-Verrettes, near the border with the Dominican Republic. The people on board were Uruguayans and Jordanians, said Vannina Maestracci, a United Nations spokeswoman.
| May they have been better men than the reputation of their militaries portends, and may that bring comfort to those who mourn their deaths. |
The cause of the crash was unknown. Local officials said the plane went down in a remote area near the village of Pays-Pourri in the district of Ganthier, a farming region area east of Port-au-Prince, the capital.
In a statement, the United Nations said that the plane, "carrying 11 passengers, including the crew, crashed southeast of the commune of Ganthier."
"The Casa 212 aircraft was making a reconnaissance flight at the time of the accident before hitting a mountainside," the statement read.
The peacekeeping force, which has been in Haiti since 2004, consists of about 9,000 troops and police officers.
| I haven't been keeping track -- have they accomplished anything positive? |
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