Ecuadorean officials say five people have been killed and two injured in the crash of a small plane that took off from a jungle airstrip. It carried some passengers who had attended a ceremony at which government officials apologized to an indigenous group for rights violations.
A statement from the civil aviation authority listed those killed in yesterday afternoon's crash as the pilot, a freelance photographer and three others. It said the cause was under investigation.
Three government ministers and the attorney general had flown back to Quito from the Sarayaku community in a different plane.
Their visit to the community constituted compliance with a 2012 sentence from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordering the government to apologize for authorizing oil exploration on Sarayaku land in the 1990s.
