By Ibon Villelabeitia
GUATEMALA CITY, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Pilot error appears to be the cause of a crash of a Cubana airlines jet that skidded off the end of the runway at Guatemala City's airport, killing 26, officials said on Wednesday.
The DC-10, chartered by Cuban national airline Cubana de Aviacion, slammed into houses on Tuesday in the poor La Libertad neighborhood after overrunning the airport runway.
Among those killed on the ground and aboard the plane was Cuban pilot Jorge Toledo, who had more than 35 years of flying experience.
Officials said on Wednesday that eyewitnesses reported Toledo landed the aircraft midway down the runway, not leaving enough tarmac to halt the plane.
"From the testimony we have so far, we believe the pilot did not use enough of the runway, landed half way down and did not have enough time to stop the airplane," Peter Zimeri, director of Guatemala's Civil Aviation Authority, told reporters.
"It was the pilot's first flight to the country. Five days before he had done a recognizance flight, but not as the pilot," he said.
Zimeri said, however, that the probe into the crash had just begun and no final determination on the cause could yet be made.
In addition to Guatemala authorities, some 20 Cuban investigators arrived late Tuesday to look into the crash, along with officials from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and McDonnell Douglas, the plane's U.S. manufacturer. McDonnell Douglas was acquired by Boeing Co. <BA.N>
in 1997.
Zimeri said the plane's flight data recorder had been recovered and was being sent on Wednesday to experts in Washington for review.
The crash was one of the worst aircraft accidents in Guatemala's history.
The plane, leased by Cubana from French airline AOM, was carrying 296 passengers and 18 crew members. Passengers included 276 Guatemalan students attending Cuba's Latin American Medical School and other Cuban universities. At least one of the Guatemalan students died in the crash.
The crash renewed calls for relocating Guatemala City's La Aurora international airport, set on the edge of a plateau, with the La Libertad neighborhood lying just below at the end of the runway.
Miriam Duran returned to her house on Wednesday to find it reduced to a pile of rubble mixed with pieces of the airplane. "God is great, my two daughters were able to save themselves and nobody died in my house," she said.
The neighborhood had been hit before. On April 28, 1995, a DC-8 cargo plane overshot the runway and smashed into a house in La Libertad, killing six people.
And in April 1993, a TACA Airlines Boeing 767 jet ran off a rain-slicked runway at the same airport and crashed into nearby houses, but there were no serious injuries.
"For the safety of passengers and the residents of Guatemala City, the relocation of the airport cannot be postponed," the daily Siglo Veintiuno said in an editorial on Wednesday.
15:38 12-22-99
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