Two U.S. Safety Experts Died In El Salvador Crash

All the victims of a Guatemalan jetliner crash, including three Americans, have been identified, the airline said Saturday.

The cause of El Salvador’s worst crash ever, which killed 65 people, remained under investigation.

Guatemala’s Aviateca had initially said five Americans were aboard the Boeing 737 when it slammed into the San Vicente volcano, 37 miles east of San Salvador, during a storm Wednesday night. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.

The airline identified the three as Donald Davis, Roberto Miranda and Ricardo Blasquez.

Davis, 62, and Miranda, 61, both of Keller, Texas, were retired Federal Aviation Administration inspectors who had been hired by the El Salvador and Guatemalan governments to help with airplane safety, according to the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.

Gwen Boyd, Davis’ sister, said her brother would routinely spend time in El Salvador inspecting airplanes.

“He was helping them make their airplanes safer,” said Boyd of Plano. “Is that ironic, or what?”

No further information was available on Ricardo Blasquez, according to the FAA.

El Salvador’s director of civil aviation, Maj. Roberto Corleto, said the plane had deviated from its normal flight path.

Boeing and U.S. government officials looked for clues Saturday on the side of the volcano, also called Chichontepec, where the plane crashed. U.S. aviation officials routinely investigates crashes of American-made commercial aircraft.

“So far, we have only succeeded in finding the tape that registers the communication between the airplane and the control tower, but the investigation to determine the cause has not advanced,” Aviateca’s general director, Enrique Beltranena, said Saturday.

The victims included the Brazilian and Danish ambassadors to Nicaragua.

The flight originated in Miami and had stopped in Guatemala before continuing to El Salvador. It had been scheduled to make further stops in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.