national

Crash victims sent to David

While doctors reported that young Francesca Lewis's condition was improving satisfactorily yesterday, the bodies of the three victims of the plane crash earlier this week were transferred to the morgue in David. They are Talia Klein, 13, Michael Klein, 37, and Edwin Lasso, 23.

A successful businessman from Santa Barbara, California, Michael Klein decided to spend Christmas with his daughter and her friend a little differently this year. They spent some time at an eco-resort he owns in Panama, but later en route to the airport in David, their Cessna 172 crashed in the Chiriquí mountains.

Klein's former wife offered a $25,000 reward for whoever found the plane, which prompted several impostors to come forward. Residents of Las Ovejas, in the Alto Boquete district, however, agree that 12-year-old Francesca was rescued by two brothers, Miguel and Manuel Burac, who, "without caring about the money," put themselves on the line to help the only survivor of the accident. Other people say a member of the Four Wheel Club rescued the girl.

The Burac brothers say a friend and an indigenous person from the area helped them. "Francesca was freezing. We wrapped her in a blanket and gave her a drink to raise her body temperature."