Workers recover flight recorder from jetliner that slid off Honduran runway, killing 5

Workers have recovered the flight recorder from a commercial jetliner that overshot a runway in Honduras, killing five people, and hope it will provide clues to the cause of the crash, the airline's president said Sunday.

Grupo Taca president Roberto Kriete said the "black box" was recovered Saturday night from the Airbus A-320, which slid off the runway Friday morning on its second landing attempt to land at the capital's Toncontin airport with 130 people aboard. At least 65 people were injured, 40 of whom were still hospitalized Sunday. Of those, four were in critical condition.

The plane was on a route from Los Angeles to San Salvador, El Salvador, then the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa and Miami.

It mowed down trees and smashed through a metal fence before coming to rest about 20 yards (meters) beyond the strip, its nose smashed against a roadside embankment and its fuselage broken into three parts.

Investigators from France, El Salvador and the United States were heading to Honduras to help in the investigation, and Kriete said the plane would be removed from the site in about two weeks.

The Airbus had 21,957 hours of flight time and 9,992 landings. It was built in Ireland in 2001 and "is considered one of the safest and most modern of the world," Kriete told The Associated Press.

He denied local news media reports that the aircraft had mechanical problems, saying, "TACA operates 140 days a year under adverse weather conditions in Central America."

The aging Toncontin is considered one of the world's more dangerous international airports, and there have been calls for years to replace it.

It was built in 1948 with a runway less than 5,300 feet (1,600 meters) long _ shorter than that of a small field such as Municipal Airport in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

The altitude of 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) forces pilots to use more runway on landings and takeoffs than they would at sea level. And because of the hills, pilots have to make an unusually steep approach.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said his government would create a civilian airport for commercial jets at a nearby U.S. military airfield that should be ready within 60 days.

In the meantime, large planes will land in San Pedro Sula, the country's second-largest city, about 112 miles (180 kilometers) north of the capital, he said.

The Toncontin airport will begin receiving helicopters and small planes of up to 42 passengers again in the coming days.

U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Charles A. Ford welcomed the traffic at the air base, known as Palmerola, which is now largely used for drug surveillance planes. But he told local radio that "certain accords and protocols must be followed."

The dead from the plane were identified as Salvadoran pilot Cesare D'Antonio, Nicaraguan banker Harry Brautigam, and Jeanne Chantal, wife of the Brazilian ambassador in Honduras. Two Honduran university students died in a car that was crushed by the plane.