Three Fatally Injured Returning From A Delivery Flight

Three aid workers engaged in hurricane relief efforts in Haiti ware fatally injured Monday evening when their plane went down off the northern coast of the island of Hispaniola.

The three people on board the plane were identified as Chuck and Candy Ritzen and Benjamin Cole Brown, according to the website News Chief. The Ritzens were the founders of Money Jungle and Zip Line Adventures, which is a tourist attraction in the Dominican Republic that funds free dental and medical clinics for indigent patients. Brown, a photojournalist, led the efforts of Live Different on Hispaniola, a Canadian charity.

According to the report, Chuck Ritzen had delivered supplies in the town of Jeremie in Haiti and had landed in Port-au-Prince to clear customs. It is not known under what circumstances the plane, reported to be a Lake LA-250 Renegade seaplane, went down, but some wreckage of the airplane was found off the Dominican Republic Coast.

The Ritzens were from Nashville, TN. Television station WTVF reported Thursday that their bodies were still missing after the Monday accident, and they were presumed to have died in the accident.

(Map provided by the Library of Congress)

FMI: www.canso.org/instituto-dominicano-de-aviacion-civil-idac