Panama Finds 3 Bodies, 1 Survivor in Plane Crash

PANAMA CITY, Panama — The bodies of a California businessman, his teenage daughter, and the Panamanian pilot of a plane that crashed over the weekend were found yesterday in Panama's mountains, officials said. A 12-year-old American girl survived. Michael Klein, 37, Talia Klein, 13, and pilot Edwin Lasso, 23, were found dead in a mountainous region of Panama known as Las Ovejas, about 270 miles west of the capital, the civil protection agency said.

Francesca Lewis, a friend of Talia's who was traveling with the Kleins, survived and was hospitalized with hypothermia and multiple traumas, the agency said in a statement. The severity of her injuries was not immediately clear. Aviation authorities said the cause of the crash was not yet known, but RPC radio reported that witnesses saw the plane flying at a very low altitude around noon Sunday amid buffeting winds.

Klein, a 37-year-old hedge fund manager, was on vacation with the two girls at an eco-resort he owns in the Central American nation, his ex-wife Kim Klein told the Associated Press from Boquete, Panama, earlier yesterday.