Colombian plane carrying 160 crashes

CARACAS – A Colombian plane with 160 people on board crashed in a mountain chain in western Venezuela early yesterday, Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said.

The minister told Venezuelan state television there were probably no survivors on the West Caribbean Airways flight from Panama to Martinique in the French West Indies. Colombian civil aviation officials in Bogota said the jet, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, had made a distress call at around 2am .The jet crashed in the Sierra de Perija mountains between 3am and 3.45 am, the minister said, after taking off from Tocumen International Airport in Panama.The jet came down in the mountains between the towns of La Cucharita and La Negra.The minister said the Venezuelan air force has flown over the region and “we believe it will be difficult to find survivors.”Chacon said that the pilot had reported engine trouble and that the plane was losing height at about 2 100 metres a minute.West Caribbean was set up only five years ago to provide low-cost flights within Colombia and to the Caribbean region.- Nampa-AFPColombian civil aviation officials in Bogota said the jet, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, had made a distress call at around 2am .The jet crashed in the Sierra de Perija mountains between 3am and 3.45 am, the minister said, after taking off from Tocumen International Airport in Panama.The jet came down in the mountains between the towns of La Cucharita and La Negra.The minister said the Venezuelan air force has flown over the region and “we believe it will be difficult to find survivors.”Chacon said that the pilot had reported engine trouble and that the plane was losing height at about 2 100 metres a minute.West Caribbean was set up only five years ago to provide low-cost flights within Colombia and to the Caribbean region. – Nampa-AFP