Colombia survivors: A normal flight, then a crash on the runway

August 17--Aires Airlines Flight 8250 was seconds away from landing at San Andres airport on a small island off the coast of Colombia. The pilot had turned on the seat belt sign and told passengers to stay in their seats. Passengers could see rain and lightning outside their small cabin windows, but nothing was amiss. Everything seemed calm. Normal. Routine.

Then a hard, violent crash as the Boeing 737-700 smacked into the runway. The plane started to break apart, and sparks flew as metal ground against concrete. Seats came loose from their moorings and tumbled about the cabin. Passengers could see the runway and the rainy predawn sky through the gaping holes left in the sheared fuselage. Some of them fell to the ground, still strapped into their seats.Survivors of Monday's plane crash that left one person dead and more than 120 injured describe nearly two hours of normalcy followed by minutes of sheer terror."Everything was going well," Heriberto Rua told Radio Caracol. "When I felt something, it was the crash."Another passenger, Juan Carlos Hurtado, said everything was fine until the moment of landing about 1:49 a.m. (2:49 a.m. ET). Read more here. Semana International delivers news about Colombia in English. Find more in our home.