Air charter crash kills 10 US citizens

Costa Rican investigators are investigating what caused a charter aircraft to crash into woods in the country’s north-west soon after takeoff, killing 10 US citizens and two local crew members on board.

Officials were still seeking to confirm the names of the Americans who died when the plane went down at 6pm GMT in Guanacaste on Sunday.

A family in the suburbs of New York City said five of the dead Americans were relatives on vacation.

The Nature Air charter flight crashed shortly after taking off from Punta Islita on route to the capital of San Jose. Investigators are looking into the cause.