A small plane that veered off track at Juan Santamaría International Airport, just outside San José, yesterday caused flights at this busy airport to be suspended for most of the day.

The plane, carrying four passengers, ran off the runway as it was taking off, according to Firefighters' Corps spokesman Luis Ramírez.

One of the four passengers, a woman who is five months pregnant, was taken to nearby México Hospital and is in stable condition, he said. No injuries were reported.

Firefighters arrived at the scene to clean up a minor fuel spill caused by the accident, and Civil Aviation authorities began investigating its cause, which had not been determined at press time.

All flights leaving from and arriving at Juan Santamaría were suspended yesterday afternoon as officials investigated the accident, said María González of Alterra Partners, the company that runs the airport.

Alterra assistant director of operations Jean Marc Boureau told the wire service ACAN-EFE flights were scheduled to resume at 7 p.m. last night.