The Juan Santamaría Airport was closed yesterday from 9:30 am to almost 6 pm due to an accident on take off suffered by a private plane.  A tire on the Fokker plane’s landing gear went flat as the plane was taking off, which caused the landing gear to break and a spill of hydraulic fluid. The plane had to be drained of fuel before it could be moved. Since the plane was so old, no couplings were available to pump out the fuel, which extended the delay considerably. 

14 flights were cancelled and 10 were rerouted.

Believe it or not, the president of the Legislative Assembly, Gerardo González of PUSC, has proposed that the year end break be shortened. Under normal conditions, the assembly recesses before Christmas and returns on February 6th. Gonzalez would have the representatives return the first week of January, so that they can discuss the CAFTA.

In general the idea was received positively, but conditionally:

Federico Malavassi of the Libertarian party, said they would support the measure if the TLC was discussed, but not if the tax reform bill was to be discussed.

Laura Chinchilla of PLN, said that the proposal would be feasible if there was a consensus among the parties to advance the pact in the time allotted.

Marta Zamora, of PAC, said that their group supported more work days for the assembly in any case, whether or not CAFTA was to be discussed wouldn’t matter.

Costa Rica is on the list of countries scheduled to receive transmissions of the Latin American network Telesur as of October 31st.  The polemic channel has been called "the voice of Chavez" in the US and is touted by backers as an alternative to US and European news channels that transmit to Latin America in Spanish.

The network offers documentaries, Latin American movies, newscasts, and talk/opinion shows.  The capital is from Cuban, Argentinian and Uruguayan sources and the network has the support of the Venezuelan government.  According to the network, the current audience is between 2 million and 7 million viewers.

The Savegre River wiped out a 150 meter section of the Interamerican Highway between Quepos and Dominical won Friday, thanks to rain caused by the recent hurricanes. MOPT officials are opening a temporary detour and analyzing the repairs that must be made and whether or not the river can be contained.