5 die in plane crash outside Costa Rica capital; emergency crews rush to save sole survivor

San Jose: Emergency workers in Costa Rica were walking early Tuesday (November 26) through a remote mountain forest carrying a woman who was in critical condition after she survived a plane crash that killed five of the six people aboard.

The Cessna 206 Stationair crashed Monday (November 25) afternoon in the Pico Blanco area southwest of the capital, San José, the Costa Rican Red Cross said. The plane was carrying the pilot, the co-pilot and a family.

The 31-year-old woman was the only survivor. As midnight neared, emergency workers were taking her through a remote forest to an area where an ambulance was waiting, said Patricia Solórzano Cordero, a Red Cross spokesperson. She said the walk was expected to take at least three hours.

A video that Solórzano Cordero shared with The New York Times showed the workers wearing hiking gear and headlamps as they made their way through a dense jungle, scrambling over roots as they brushed against branches.

The search crew included 60 Red Cross personnel, 13 emergency vehicles and a canine unit, according to Solórzano Cordero. When a group of rescuers found the aircraft at 8:30 p.m., two of the people on board were alive, she said.

Costa Rica's civil aviation agency did not immediately respond to inquiries about the crash.