Private jet, chartered by baseball legend Yadier Molina, crashes in Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo: The pilot and co-pilot of a private jet chartered by baseball legend Yadier Molina died Sunday in a fiery crash in eastern Dominican Republic, authorities and the former player said.

A video posted on social media showed a huge plume of smoke on the runway of La Romana International Airport, while trucks sprayed water to try to control a fire.

The Dominican Civil Aviation Institute said that the pilot and co-pilot, both Americans, died.

“No passengers were reported” on board, its statement said.

“The aircraft declared an emergency while approximately 16 nautical miles (30 kilometers) southwest of La Romana” and crashed as it was attempting to land there, it added.

The authority said an investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the crash of the Gulfstream G200 jet, which can seat up to 18 passengers.

Molina — a former catcher for Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals — said the plane had been bound for Texas to pick up him and his family and fly them to his native Puerto Rico.

“My condolences to the pilots and their families,” he wrote in a post on Instagram, accompanied by a video of a plane crash-landing at the airport and bursting into flames.

Molina is considered one of the best defensive catchers in MLB history. He won two World Series titles with the Cardinals over his 2004-2022 career.

The airport serves the tourist city of La Romana.

Tourism is key to the economy of the Dominican Republic, a country of 11.6 million people located in the Caribbean.

In 2021, nine people died in a private plane crash after departing from Las Americas International Airport in the capital, Santo Domingo.