Airliner overshoots runway in Honduras - five dead

At least five people were killed and 65 injured Friday when a jet owned by Central America's TACA airlines slid across a runway and onto a road as it tried to land at Tegucigalpa airport, rescue personnel said.

The plane was an Airbus A-320 carrying 124 passengers plus crew and was flying a Los Angeles-San Salvador-Tegucigalpa route, officials said.

The plane skidded off the runway, crashed down a 20-meter (66-foot) embankment, plowed across a road and broke into three pieces, TACA officials said.

The TACA airlines Airbus, which had 142 people on board, lay broken in three parts and spewing fuel. Two people were still trapped in cars underneath the wreckage, an aviation official said.

The plane, arriving from San Salvador, circled the airport several times before attempting to land in heavy fog, survivor Mario Castillo told Honduran television.

A passenger plane skidded off a runway at Tegucigalpa airport in Honduras on Friday as it was trying to land and veered onto a road, killing at least one of those on board, officials said.

A local manager of El Salvador's TACA airline, Armando Funez, told Honduran television there were 142 passengers on board the plane, which was arriving from San Salvador when it zig-zagged off the runway and smacked into some cars.

Local media said several people were trapped in cars underneath the plane, which also hit a small wooden food store.

A doctor at the hospital treating those injured told Honduran television that one of the passengers, who he said was a director of a regional Central American integration bank, had died.

Reports said Flight 390 was arriving from El Salvador. It ended up stopping on a nearby street.

Ambulances and firefighters raced to the scene, and several people were taken to nearby hospitals. There were no immediate reports of deaths.

Officials are investigating and details are sketchy, the airline's general manager said.

Weather may have been a factor. The plane landed hours after the remainder of Tropical Storm Alma passed through, and parts of the city have been wrapped in fog.