Venezuela plane crash kills 15

VENEZUELA: Fifteen people died Monday in a plane crash in Venezuela, but 36 others miraculously survived after the pilot alerted air traffic control that something was wrong moments before disaster struck.

The plane, carrying 47 passengers and four crew from the resort city of Isla Margarita, broke almost in two and burst into flames as it hit the ground near a steel works owned by the Sidor group in Bolivar state.

“In total we have 36 survivors and 15 dead. The survivors are being looked after,” said Transport and Communications Minister Francisco Garces.

“Given the condition of the plane, I think we were very lucky.”

Most of the survivors had sustained burns and were traumatized by the event, but none were in life-threatening condition, Garces said. The Conviasa Airlines ATR-42-300 plane went down about six miles (10 kilometers) from Puerto Ordaz. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Officials said the quick response by the emergency services after the pilot warned air traffic control that the flight was in trouble had prevented a higher death toll.

Rescuers arrived at the scene quickly with medical helicopters on hand to transport the wounded to local hospitals that had been placed on alert. A burns unit was also on stand-by to treat those caught in the blazing wreckage.

The plane went down at a site mostly used by Sidor to store scrap industrial material.

None of its employees were injured in the crash, but they were among the first at the scene helping rescue passengers, Bolivar state governor Rangel Gomez said.

The governor said the pilot appeared to have “lost control” of the plane and had radioed a control tower to warn that the flight was having technical difficulties. A spokesperson for ATR, the aircraft manufacturer, said the firm was investigating the accident.

“We are working in close cooperation with the company (Conviasa) and authorities to understand the causes of the accident. At the moment we do not know what caused it,” a spokesman in Paris told AFP. ATR aircraft like the one that crashed Monday are made by a European consortium composed of EADS and Alenia.

The firm, based in Toulouse, France, employs some 850 people and is considered a global leader in the manufacture of small turbo-propelled planes with 50-75 seats, with some 52 percent of the market. CARACAS, AFP