Montserrat airline says 2 passengers, pilot died in crash of small plane at Antigua airport

ST. JOHN'S, Antigua – A small Caribbean airline says three people have died in the crash of a twin-engine plane at Antigua's airport.

FlyMontserrat CEO Nigel Harris says two passengers and pilot Jason Forbes were killed in the Sunday afternoon crash at V.C. Bird International Airport in Antigua. He says one passenger was critically injured.

The nine-seat Britten-Norman Islander plane with four people aboard was headed from Antigua to Montserrat when it slammed into the ground off a rain-slicked runway seconds after takeoff.

Stanley Smith is the head of the Antigua & Barbuda Airport Authority. He said Monday that authorities will release the identities of the passengers only after relatives are contacted.

Jamaica's ministry of foreign affairs confirmed Monday that one of the dead passengers was a Jamaican schoolteacher who worked in Montserrat.