Air crash in Venezuela kills 160
16.08.05
A Colombian charter plane carrying tourists from Panama to Martinique crashed in Venezuela yesterday, after its engines failed. All 160 on board were killed, in one of the country's worst air disasters.
The West Caribbean airways MD-82 aircraft was en route to the French Caribbean island when it reported engine trouble and diverted to an airport in Venezuela. It crashed at a cattle farm near Venezuela's border with Colombia, authorities said.
Most of the passengers were local government officials in Martinique who had been on holiday with their families, an official at the Fort-de-France airport in Martinique said. He said the 152 passengers included one baby and four children.
In Seattle, Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx said the company was dispatching a team of air safety investigators to help search for the cause of the crash. Boeing took over McDonnell Douglas, maker of the MD-82, in 1997.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said the aircraft had changed its route to try to land in the western Venezuelan city of Maracaibo, but lost altitude and crashed in the remote Sierra de Perija region near the border with Colombia. 'When it was flying over Venezuelan airspace, they had problems with one engine and then with another engine, and at that moment it went down,' Chacon said.
The aircraft scattered into small parts of fuselage after plowing into the earth. Its tail was left standing alone, according to a Reuters photographer at the site.
French Transport Minister Dominique Perben said the airplane was inspected recently and no problems were noted. 'This aircraft, which since May has landed several times on French territory, was twice checked by the local services of the French civil aviation authority DGAC.'
West Caribbean is based in the Colombian city of Medellin and operates two McDonnell Douglas MD-81s, an MD-82, two Airbus ATR42s and several smaller aircraft. It was the second crash involving a West Caribbean Airway plane this year. In March, a West Caribbean Airways Let L-410 aircraft departing from Providencia, Colombia, failed to ascend and hit hills close to the runway. Two crew and six passengers died in that accident.
The MD-82 aircraft, delivered to its first operator in 1986, passed a safety check by Colombian authorities on Monday. But the airline has been penalized before for excessive weight and other violations, a Colombian aviation official said.
