No Survivors in Venezuela Crash

Wreckage of 46-passenger plane found
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 22, 2008 9:47 AM CST
No Survivors in Venezuela Crash
Relatives of passengers on board a commercial flight, flying from the southern Venezuela city of Merida to Caracas reported missing, gesture as they arrive at the the desk of Venezuelan Santa Barbara airlines at the Simon Bolivar airport, in Maiquetia, near Caracas, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008. The plane...   (Associated Press)

Search helicopters today found what was left of the Venezuelan passenger plane that crashed yesterday with 46 people aboard. No survivors were found in the wreckage, which was nestled among the Andes mountains at an altitude of 13,000 feet, the AP reports. The plane crashed into the mountain head-first, said one Venezuelan general in the civil aeronautical institute.

“By the type of impact we presume that there are no survivors,” said the general. Local residents report hearing “a great crash,” as the plane struck. Before the news broke, families had gathered at the airport, with many crying and embracing each other in an emotional scene. The flight was supposed to last a scant hour and 45 minutes. (More Venezuela stories.)

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