FUNCHAL, Portugal – A German plane is expected to arrive on the Portuguese island of Madeira on Friday to take home survivors from a bus crash that killed 29 tourists.
Germany's foreign minister announced late on Thursday that the plane and medical crew were being readied. Heiko Maas also said that bodies of the deceased would be transported to Germany once they are properly identified.
The foreign minister spoke after visiting the injured in Madeira's capital, Funchal, and after laying flowers at the site of the crash with his Portuguese counterpart, Augusto Santos Silva.
All the deceased were German. The bus was carrying 55 people, including a Portuguese driver and guide, when it veered off the road and plunged down a slope.
Sixteen people remain hospitalized; authorities say all are out of danger.