A Colombian plane with 152 people on board crashed in a mountainous region in western Venezuela early on Tuesday, Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said.
”According to our estimates, the plane crashed in Sierra de Perija between 3am and 3.45am,” he said on state television.
The West Caribbean Airways plane flying from Panama to Martinique in the West Indies crashed in the Sierra de Perija mountains between 3am and 3.45am local time, he said on state television.
The plane, which took off from Tocumen airport in Panama, crashed between the towns of La Cucharita and La Negra, Chacon said.
Colombian civil aviation officials in Bogota said the jet, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, had made a distress call at about 2am.
It is unclear whether anyone survived, The Associated Press reported.
”Residents in the area said they heard an explosion,” The Associated Press quoted Francisco Paz, president of the National Aviation Institute, as saying. ”Air rescue teams are travelling to the area right now by air and by land.”
He said the pilot reported trouble with both engines to the Caracas air control tower just after 3am local time, and authorities lost contact with the plane about 10 minutes later.
The plane had been chartered for tourists, and 152 passengers were listed on the flight plan, Paz said. It wasn’t immediately clear how many crew members accompanied them.