10 die in fiery Costa Rica plane crash

The Costa Rican government says that a plane with 10 foreigners and two local crew members has crashed in a wooded area.

The Public Safety Ministry has posted photographs and video of the crash site showing burning wreckage of the plane.

The reason for the crash is not yet known. It took place in the mountainous area of Punta Islita, which is popular with tourists, in the province of Guanacaste, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) west of the capital of San Jose, according to the Daily Mail.

The aircraft, a single-propellor Cessna 208 Caravan, came down in a mountainous area near the Pacific coastal beach town of Punta Islita in the country's Guanacaste peninsula, the spokesman, Carlos Hidalgo, said on his Facebook page.

"It is a private plane with 10 foreign passengers and two local crew members," a separate security ministry statement said.

Hidalgo published images of the crash site, showing flaming wreckage strewn across the terrain.

The US embassy said it was aware of the crash and was "trying to confirm if any US citizens are on board."

Sunday's statement says there were 10 foreigners and two Costa Rican crew members aboard the plane belonging to Nature Air, which had taken off nearby.

According to local media reports the dead included a family of five.