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No survivors in Venezuelan plane crash

A plane crashed in the Venezuelan Andes just after takeoff and all 46 people on board were killed, authorities said yesterday.

Search team officials said they spotted the wreckage from a helicopter flying over high-altitude, steep mountainsides, adding that the aircraft appeared to be completely destroyed.

The twin-engined plane crashed just a few kilometers from the mountain city of Merida in an area notoriously difficult for pilots to navigate, headed for the capital of Caracas on Thursday evening.

Overnight search teams had also trekked through rugged terrain and at daylight yesterday aircraft scoured the Andes.

There was no evidence the pilot made distress calls to air traffic controllers, officials said.

The aircraft was operated by local airline Santa Barbara.

The passenger list included a well-known Venezuelan political analyst and relatives of a senior government official, authorities said.

Pilots need special training to fly from the Merida airport because the city is so tightly hemmed in by mountains that planes must make steep ascents at takeoff.

Witnesses in the Andean region of Collao del Condor saw the aircraft go down, according to a civil defense official in Merida, some 500km southwest of Caracas, where the flight originated.

"A telephone call was received from some of the local people, Noel Marquez, told reporters.

The flight was reported missing at 5:45pm, Civil Defense Director General Antonio Rivero said.

Alarms went off immediately after the aircraft failed to report to flight controllers monitoring the route, Marquez said.

The company, founded in Maracaibo in 1995, has no record of accidents.
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