Three survive as plane crash-lands in Tenerife

A light aircraft has crashed on a beach in Tenerife.

Terrified people ran for their lives when the plane was forced to make an emergency landing on the Las Teresitas beach in Santa Cruz at around 1pm on Tuesday 27 December.

All three people on board – a man, a woman and a 14-year-old girl – survived and were taken to La Candelaria hospital.

Authorities report the plane was heading for Morocco when a technical fault brought the plane down.

Tenerife airport was alerted to the trouble and the light aircraft planned to perform an emergency landing on the runway.

Minutes later, shocked beachgoers reported that the plane had crash landed on the beach.

Eyewitnesses said the fire service had to cut through the roof of the plane to release the man but the woman and teenager were able to walk away from the wreckage relatively unscathed.

The Mayor of Santa Cruz, Jose Bermudez, said it was a “miracle” no-one was killed in the incident.

Fire crews remained at the scene of the crash cleaning up fuel that leaked onto the beach, and will reopen it once it is safe for the public.