A Colombian plane with 160 people on board crashed on Tuesday in the mountains of western Venezuela, leaving no survivors.
The West Caribbean Airways plane, on a flight from Panama to Martinique in the French West Indies, came down in a remote zone in the Sierra de Perija mountains in the western state of Zulia. Most of the passengers were said to be French.
It was the second accident in five months involving the Colombian airline, which was set up in 2000 to provide low-cost flights within Colombia and to the Caribbean region.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 jet crashed between 3am and 3.45am local time after the pilot had reported trouble with both engines.
Inhabitants of the town of Machique reported seeing an explosion in the mountains, Globovision television said.
The jet came down between the districts of La Cucharita and La Negra close to the Venezuela-Colombia border.
Colombian officials said most of the 152 passengers, who included one child, were French. There were also eight Colombian crew members on the flight.
Carlos Montealegre, head of the Colombian civil aviation authority, said in Bogota that rescuers who reached the scene have confirmed there are no survivors.
The Venezuelan minister also said that military helicopters have flown over the crash site.
“We believe it will be difficult to find survivors,” he said.
The mountains were shrouded in cloud and rain but air-force helicopters and emergency rescue teams were sent to the scene, Venezuelan officials said. Twenty-two Colombian rescuers were also heading for the crash site.
The jet had taken off from Tocumen International airport near Panama City.
Chacon said that the pilot had reported trouble with one engine, and minutes later its second engine also failed.
“It started to fall at a speed of 2 100m a minute,” the minister said on state television.
West Caribbean was set up only five years ago by a group of Colombian businessmen.
In March, another of its planes, a small turboprop Let 410, crashed into a mountain after problems taking off at Providencia island, killing the two crew and six of the 12 passengers. — AFP