727 lands in jungle clearing

A Lloyd Aereo Boliviano Boeing 727 carrying 151 passengers made an emergency landing in a clearing in an Amazon jungle on Friday in the latest setback for the troubled airline.

No one was injured when the 727 landed in an open field about 3.3 km (2 miles) from the airport in the eastern city of Trinidad, airline officials said.

“Everyone walked off the plane,” Gustavo Viscarra, head of operations at Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, told local television. “This was an incident that, thank God, didn’t claim any victims.”

One passenger said people inside the plane had only suffered “slight blows.”

Lloyd Aereo Boliviano flights have been largely suspended for nearly a year due to the airline’s debts and legal troubles. The privatized company began offering charter flights in December while it worked toward renewing its commercial license.

Friday’s charter flight was headed from the Andean city of La Paz to the northern city of Cobija but bad weather impeded a normal landing there and in Trinidad, Viscarra said.

It is the height of Bolivia’s rainy season and flooding and heavy rains have killed more than 40 people since November.

(Reuters)