Bodies have been found Sunday near the site where the president of Honduras’ sister has been killed, along with five others, after their helicopter crashed into a mountainside on Saturday.
Hilda Hernandez, 51, was aboard the chopper with four members of her security detail, when the pilot took off from Tegucigalpa’s international airport in the morning bound for her residence in Comayagua, about 40 miles from the capital.
Soon afterward, the air force reported that the aircraft had gone missing.
The bodies being found comes as President Hernandez was declared winner on Sunday of disputed elections, after three weeks of uncertainty and continued challenges to the result by runner-up Salvador Nasralla.
Bodies have been found Sunday in the area where a helicopter crash Saturday killed Hilda Hernandez (R), 51, sister of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez (L)
Bodies have been found Sunday in the area where a helicopter crash Saturday killed Hilda Hernandez (R), 51, sister of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez (L)
The wreckage was later discovered in the mountains outside Tegucigalpa.
There were no survivors.
Hernandez was an agronomy engineer who served as communications minister under her brother and as minister of social development during the previous administration of then-President Porfirio Lobo.
Her brother, President Juan Orlando Hernandez, has not yet publicly commented on the loss of his sister.
Rescue workers carry a body found in the area where Hilda Hernandez, the sister of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, and five others died
The helicopter they were traveling in crashed in San Matias, Honduras
Rescue workers carry the bodies of the victims of a helicopter crash in the mountains on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Hilda Hernandez, sister of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, and five other people were killed in the helicopter crash Saturday on a mountain near the Honduran capital
But he has retweeted messages of condolences from friends and fellow heads of states.
Prior to that, he changed his Twitter profile picture to a black ribbon of mourning, and soon after, to a photo of his sister.
One of Hilda’s other brothers, Marco Augusto Hernandez, confirmed the news to other members of the National Party through a WhatsApp message.
‘I tell you that our sister and the crew did not survive, please pray for her soul,’ he wrote, according to local papers.
Reynaldo Sanchez, the head of the president’s National Party, said in a statement: ‘Be with God, Hilda Hernandez, a tireless fighter for our party.’
Firefighters recover the body of Hilda Hernandez, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s sister, and the bodies of the rest of the people who died Saturday
The group died Saturday in a helicopter that crashed in the mountains of Yerbabuena, Rincon de Dolores, Lepaterique municipality
Hernandez, an engineer and former communications and press minister in her brother’s government, died in a helicopter crash along with the pilot, copilot and three other people
Juan Orlando changed his Twitter profile picture to a black ribbon of mourning, and soon after, to a photo of his sister, but did not publicly comment on his sister’s death
No cause for the crash was given, but the country was being affected by a cold front at the time
The death of Hilda Hernandez comes the day before President Hernandez was declared winner on Sunday of disputed elections , after three weeks of uncertainty
The other victims in the helicopter crash on Saturday included Patricia Valladares; security agents Nahun Lagos and Marcos Banegas, pilot Ivan Esau Vasquez Portillo, and co-pilot co-pilot Gerson Alcedin Diaz Nolasco, according to local press
Honduran soldiers walk in the mountains of Yerba Buena, Rincon de Dolores, in the municipality of Lepaterique
The helicopter crash occurred in the mountains of Yerbabuena, Rincon de Dolores.
No cause for the crash was given, but it happened as the country was being affected by a cold front.
On Sunday, Juan Orlando Hernandez was declared the winner after a three-week long dispute over Honduras’ Nov. 26 presidential election, in which electoral officials initially said he took 43 percent of the vote to 41.4 percent for opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla.
The final certified results showed Hernandez won with 42.95 percent to Nasralla’s 41.42 percent according to the electoral court’s official count, the Guardian reported.
‘We have fulfilled our obligation (and) we wish for there to be peace in our country,’ Electoral court president David Matamoros said as he announced the court’s ruling.
Supporters of presidential candidate for the opposition Alliance against Dictatorship party Salvador Nasralla, protest in Tegucigalpa, on Dec. 17
The coordinator of the Opposition Alliance against Dictatorship party, Manuel Zelaya, called to the group to national mobilization
Zelaya made the call in response to the declaration of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez as elected from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal
At least 17 people have already died in protests stemming from the Alliance Against Dictatorship Party’s allegations of vote fraud perpetrated to the benefit of Hernandez
Runner-up Salvador Nasralla has alleged fraud and continues to refuse to recognize the results, calling for more protests
Nasralla has alleged fraud and continues to refuse to recognize the results, calling for more protests.
At least 17 people have already died in protests stemming from the Alliance Against Dictatorship Party’s allegations of vote fraud perpetrated to the benefit of President Hernandez.
The other victims in the helicopter crash on Saturday included Patricia Valladares; security agents Nahun Lagos and Marcos Banegas, pilot Ivan Esau Vasquez Portillo, and co-pilot Gerson Alcedin Diaz Nolasco, according to local press.
Hernandez, an engineer and former communications and press minister in the government of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, her brother, died in a helicopter crash on Saturday