mana from the sky

[j_b]

Looters descend on plane crash site in Peru

 

PUCALLPA, Peru (AFP) - Residents of this impoverished corner of Peru swarmed onto the site where 40 people perished in a plane crash two days ago, scavenging furiously through the muddy wreckage for money, metal, or anything of value.

 

Armed with rubber boots and machetes, hundreds of men, women and children plunged bare hands into the churned-up ooze of the jungle floor and stripped metal from the charred plane, while authorities, outnumbered, stood helplessly nearby.

 

"Now, we can't stop it. There are very few of us and as you can see, there are more than 1,000 people," one police officer said.

 

The crowds began pressing in Wednesday from Pucallpa, a jungle outpost of 220,000, 840 kilometers (520 miles) northeast of Lima but just a few kilometers (miles) from where the Tans Peru airline Boeing 737-200 went down on Tuesday.

 

Rescuers Thursday finished the grisly task of identifying the 40 dead, confirming that 58 others had survived the crash, many of them badly burned. Nineteen were evacuated to Lima.

 

It was the fifth passenger jet crash worldwide this month.

 

Thursday, once rescuers packed up and left the crash site, it was impossible to hold back the press of local residents who saw opportunity in the midst of tragedy.

 

"All that is to sell to the scrap metal merchant," a 16-year-old boy said of his haul. "It's not good for anything anymore. We have to live somehow," he said.

 

Side by side with a man of about 40, he plunged his hand into the mud, hoping to find something of value. "Anything will do, even clothes. You can sell them," he said.

 

Nearby others were trying, without much success, to strip down one of the plane's motors, still stuck in the swampy ground.

 

"Some people found money," said a woman, Etelvina, who refused to give her last name. "But those who found the most are the police and soldiers who wouldn't let people in," she added bitterly.

 

[...]

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050825/ts_...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[thelawgoddess]

sad ... on more than one level.

[Dru]

same like the wreckers on the English coast, down on the beach to get stuff. at least these villagers haven't built fake landing strips yet?

[olyclimber]

the gods must be crazy

[JoshK]

"Nearby others were trying, without much success, to strip down one of the plane's motors, still stuck in the swampy ground"

 

The plane's "motor"? An interesting choice of words for certain.

[mec]

hey it's a third world country, they really don't know the difference between a motor and an engine. A motor is just something that makes it go and is generally loud and smelly.