Europe

German survivors of Madeira bus crash to be flown home

Associated Press
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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, second left, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva, center, and Pedro Calado, vice president of regional government, right, address the media outside the hospital in Funchal, the capital of Portugal's Madeira Island, Thursday April 18, 2019 after visiting people injured in the bus crash. All the 29 people killed in a bus crash on Portugal's Madeira Island were German, Portugal's foreign ministry confirmed Thursday. The bus carrying 55 people, all but two of them German tourists, rolled down a steep hill after veering off the road on a bend east of Madeira's capital, Funchal, on Wednesday evening when it was still light and in fine weather. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas sits in a minivan outside the hospital in Funchal, the capital of Portugal's Madeira Island, Thursday April 18, 2019 after visiting people injured in the bus crash. All the 29 people killed in a bus crash on Portugal's Madeira Island were German, Portugal's foreign ministry confirmed Thursday. The bus carrying 55 people, all but two of them German tourists, rolled down a steep hill after veering off the road on a bend east of Madeira's capital, Funchal, on Wednesday evening when it was still light and in fine weather. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

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.