December 10, 1992, Thursday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 273 words
HEADLINE: Plane Crash Kills Army Chief, Military Officers
BYLINE: By CARLOS CISTERNAS, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: QUITO, Ecuador
BODY: The army's top general, his son and eight military officers were killed Thursday when their private jet clipped a 10-story building under construction and crashed in a residential area, officials said. There were no survivors aboard plane and at least one worker in the building was killed, officials said. Radio reports, which could not be immediately confirmed, said there were at least three dead on the ground. Gen. Carlomagno Andrade and the others were returning from a military ceremony in Machala, about 220 miles southeast of Quito, when the wing of the 16-seat Saberline executive jet hit the fifth floor of the building, army spokesman Gen. Edmundo Luna said. The plane crashed into a garden in the neighborhood, crowded with high-rise apartment buildings about 2 miles from the airport. The cause of the 6:45 p.m. EST crash was not immediately known, but the building did not have warning lights and fog was settling in around the city of 1.4 million people. Parts of the plane were scattered around the building, but the plane's fuselage was mostly intact. Only a few windows of the building were shattered. Residents crowded the streets and soldiers guarded the crash site. Luna said the victims include Andrade; his 23-year-old son Carlos; four lieutenants; a major and sergeant. The pilot and co-pilot, both military captains, were also killed. Andrade, 54, took over the army Aug. 10 to replace Jose Gallardo, who was named defense minister. In June 1988, a Saberliner carrying air force chief Gen. Angel Flores and 10 others crashed into a mountainside near Thursday's crash site, killing all on board.
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