At least 13 killed in Venezuela plane crash
By German Dam
PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela | Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:37pm EDT
PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela (Reuters) - A passenger plane owned by Venezuela's state-run airline Conviasa crashed with about 50 people on board on Monday, killing at least 13 as it came down just outside a steel mill. The ATR-42 plane was on a domestic route between the Caribbean island of Margarita and the southern industrial city Puerto Ordaz when it crashed near the gates of the vast Sidor mill on the banks of the Orinoco river.
"We still don't know the exact cause," local governor Francisco Rangel Gomez told state TV, adding that the pilot had radioed warning the plane was in difficulty. "I hope we are able find more survivors." Jose Bonalde, head of fire services and the scene, told Reuters that 13 corpses had been removed from the plane. A nearby Puerto Ordaz hospital received 21 injured people and two corpses from the crash site, where twisted and charred wreckage of the turboprop plane was still smoldering after the mid-morning accident.
Hospital director Yanitza Rodriguez said many of the survivors were seriously injured. Gomez put the number of survivors at at least 23. He said 51 people were on the Conviasa flight, while Transport Minister Francisco Garces earlier had said 47 were on board. ATR, which makes 40-70 seat twin-engined turboprops, is a joint venture between Airbus parent company EADS and Italian aerospace group Finmeccanica.
Officials said the crash did not cause any injuries or damage to Sidor's installations. "The plane fell on a waste area where they put barrels of unused steel materials," governor Gomez said. In the last major crash in Venezuela in 2008, another ATR-42 belonging to private local airline Santa Barbara with 46 passengers on board crashed into mountains, with no survivors. The Conviasa plane was flying flight number 2350 and carried the registration YV1010.
(Additional reporting by Eyanir Chinea, Frank Jack Daniel, Diego Ore, Marianna Parraga in Caracas: Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
