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Rescue workers observe the wreckage of a West Caribbean
Airways passenger plane that crashed with 160 people on board in the
Sierra de Perija near Machiques in western Venezuela, Tuesday, Aug.
16, 2005. |
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A chartered jet filled with
tourists returning home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique
crashed Tuesday in western Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. The
plane plunged to the ground after the pilot reported both engines had
failed, officials said.
Wreckage was strewn across a remote pasture near
Machiques, 400 miles west of Caracas near the border with Colombia just
east of the Sierra de Perija mountain range. From above, only the tail of
the West Caribbean Airways plane could be seen intact, lying amid
charred trees.
The crash was the deadliest in Venezuelan history, according to the
Aviation Safety Network, a nonprofit group that keeps a database of air
disasters. It said the death toll surpassed a 1969 crash in Venezuela that
killed 155, including 71 victims on the ground.
Rescuers pulled dozens of bodies from the site and recovered one of the
plane's black boxes, which could give clues to the cause of the crash,
said Air Force Maj. Javier Perez, the search and rescue chief. He said the
cockpit voice recorder had not
been found.
As the plane developed problems just after 3 a.m., the Colombian pilot
radioed to a nearby airport in western Venezuela requesting permission for
an emergency landing, saying
both engines had failed. But within 10 minutes, the McDonnell Douglas
MD-82 fell into a steep
descent and broke apart on impact, Venezuelan officials said. Residents
reported hearing an explosion.
"The plane went out of control and crashed," said Col. Francisco Paz,
president of the National Civil Aviation Institute. "There are no
survivors."
(Agencies) |
Updated: 2005-08-17 11:51
