Quito, Ecuador – A small plane crashed in Ecuador’s southern Amazon region, killing the pilot and three Indian leaders on board, an indigenous organization said Wednesday.
The Pastaza Federation of Indigenous Peoples said the Cessna 178 went down Tuesday afternoon after taking off from Mamayac, a remote Shuar Indian community 135 miles (220 kilometers) southwest of Quito, the capital.
There were no survivors, the federation said in a statement.
The victims were identified as Hernan Rosero, the plane’s pilot; Joaquin Najandey, president of the Independent Federation of Shuar Peoples; Rodrigo Huampaqui, head of the Interprovincial Federation of Shuar Centers; and Samuel Huampaqui, leader of the Shuar and Achuar Nationalities Federation.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known, the statement said. The delay in announcing the crash was due to the remoteness of the site, it said.
