MD-80 goes down in Venezuela
08-16-2005, 09:05 AM
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MD-80 goes down in Venezuela
Jet Crashes in Venezuela; 160 Feared Dead
Passenger Jet Traveling to Martinique Crashes in Venezuela; 160 People Aboard Are Feared Dead
ABCNews.com
CARACAS, Venezuela Aug 16, 2005 — A plane carrying some 160 people, mostly vacationers from the French Caribbean island of Martinique, crashed Tuesday in western Venezuela after reporting engine trouble and all aboard were feared dead, authorities said.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 was headed from Panama to Martinique when its pilot requested permission to make an emergency landing just after 3 a.m., saying there was trouble with both engines, said Francisco Paz, president of the National Aviation Institute.
Airport authorities lost radio contact with the West Caribbean Airways plane roughly 10 minutes later in the area of Machiques, near the border with Colombia some 400 miles west of Caracas, he said.
The plane crashed in a remote area and rescuers were having trouble reaching the scene. But Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said military helicopters and planes flying over the area indicated "it's very unlikely there could be survivors."
The crash came only two days after a Cypriot airliner plunged into the mountains north of Athens, Greece, killing all 121 people aboard.
The French civil aviation authority said all 153 passengers aboard were French citizens from Martinique, and that all died in the crash.
The airline, in a statement from Colombia, said 152 passengers, including an infant, and eight Colombian crew members were on the plane. The discrepancy in the number of passengers could not immediately be resolved.
Officials in Martinique said the vacationers included groups of civil servants and their families who had chartered the flight for a one-week trip to Panama.
"There were couples who went away, and so today there are children who are orphans," Andre Charpentier, mayor of the Martinique town of Basse-Pointe from which 16 of the victims came, said on France's I-Tele.
French President Jacques Chirac expressed his "strong emotion" as he learned of the "appalling catastrophe" and offered condolences to families of victims. He sent France's minister for overseas territories to Martinique and opened a crisis center at the Foreign Ministry to maintain contacts with Venezuelan authorities and victims' families.
Passenger Jet Traveling to Martinique Crashes in Venezuela; 160 People Aboard Are Feared Dead
ABCNews.com
CARACAS, Venezuela Aug 16, 2005 — A plane carrying some 160 people, mostly vacationers from the French Caribbean island of Martinique, crashed Tuesday in western Venezuela after reporting engine trouble and all aboard were feared dead, authorities said.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 was headed from Panama to Martinique when its pilot requested permission to make an emergency landing just after 3 a.m., saying there was trouble with both engines, said Francisco Paz, president of the National Aviation Institute.
Airport authorities lost radio contact with the West Caribbean Airways plane roughly 10 minutes later in the area of Machiques, near the border with Colombia some 400 miles west of Caracas, he said.
The plane crashed in a remote area and rescuers were having trouble reaching the scene. But Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said military helicopters and planes flying over the area indicated "it's very unlikely there could be survivors."
The crash came only two days after a Cypriot airliner plunged into the mountains north of Athens, Greece, killing all 121 people aboard.
The French civil aviation authority said all 153 passengers aboard were French citizens from Martinique, and that all died in the crash.
The airline, in a statement from Colombia, said 152 passengers, including an infant, and eight Colombian crew members were on the plane. The discrepancy in the number of passengers could not immediately be resolved.
Officials in Martinique said the vacationers included groups of civil servants and their families who had chartered the flight for a one-week trip to Panama.
"There were couples who went away, and so today there are children who are orphans," Andre Charpentier, mayor of the Martinique town of Basse-Pointe from which 16 of the victims came, said on France's I-Tele.
French President Jacques Chirac expressed his "strong emotion" as he learned of the "appalling catastrophe" and offered condolences to families of victims. He sent France's minister for overseas territories to Martinique and opened a crisis center at the Foreign Ministry to maintain contacts with Venezuelan authorities and victims' families.
