Jetliner hits Guatemala homes

 From Herald Wire Services

 GUATEMALA CITY -- At least 13 people died and 56 were injured Tuesday when
 a Cubana airlines DC-10 overshot a rain-slicked runway and crashed into nearby
 homes, an official with the Civil Aviation Authority said.

 The plane was carrying 298 people, including 16 crew members and 278
 Guatemalans, most of them medical students in Cuba who were coming home for
 the holidays, Peter Zimeri, head of Guatemala's Civil Aviation Authority, said.

 The accident occurred around 10:00 a.m. Firefighters at the scene said some
 victims, including airline passengers and residents of La Libertad neighborhood,
 remained trapped under the twisted metal Tuesday afternoon.

 Local news media reported that the dead included the pilot, Cecilio Hernandez,
 and the flight engineer, Jorge Toledo, as well as Daniel Antonio Alarcon, third
 secretary of the Guatemalan Embassy in Cuba, and Heydi Marisol Ramirez
 Hernandez, a 13-year-old girl.

 Government officials closed an area about 1,600 feet around the wreckage, fearing
 a possible fire sparked by fuel leaking from the plane.

 Defense Minister Marco Espinosa was managing the evacuation, prevention and
 control operation at the scene.

 Zimeri, the civil aviation director, said the pilot was not familiar with the landing
 strip, which was very wet, although he ruled out the rain and hail as the cause of
 the accident.

 Experts from Cuba and France have been called on to examine the flight
 recorders, which have been recovered, in order to determine the cause of the
 accident, Zimeri said.