Costa Rican President Hurt In Plane Accident Cessna Aircraft Skids Off A Jungle Runway And Falls Into Ditch

Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres was injured Thursday when a light plane he was flying in skidded off a jungle runway and into a ditch.

Doctors said Figueres suffered blows to his head, back and legs when the Cessna aircraft landed roughly near the hamlet of Guacimo, about 30 miles east of San Jose.

The president was rushed to the capital, where he was reported in stable condition at San Jose’s Hospital Mexico, a government official, Dr. Longino Soto Pacheco, said. He said Figueres would remain hospitalized for observation until Sunday.

Three other passengers and two crewmembers traveling with Figueres were reported unhurt in the landing near the tropical EARTH agricultural school. The delegation was visiting the school to discuss a project to process edible tuberous roots.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. The region is humid from frequent rains and there were reports the airstrip was slick at the time of the accident.

Figueres campaigned as a populist in the February 1994 election, and at age 39 became Costa Rica’s youngest president.

Figueres is the son of the late Jose “Pepe” Figueres, whose 1948 rebellion led to creation of Central America’s oldest democracy.

But while the elder Figueres abolished the country’s army and created a stable political state that won him folk-hero status, his son has been battling an economic crisis.