OT, this plane crash isn't getting much attention here in the US, but this has been a bad month for them>
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- A Peruvian airplane crashed in the northeastern Amazon jungle, killing at least 60 people in the second South American crash in a week, Peru's President Alejandro Toledo said.
The Boeing 737-200 run by state-run airline Tans was carrying 93 passengers and seven crew members when it crashed near the city of Pucallpa, 480 kilometers (300 miles) northwest of the capital, Toledo told reporters in a broadcast on Lima- based radio station Radioprogramas.
``We're monitoring this closely and working with the various state entities to support the investigation,'' Toledo said. ``I ask the passengers' relatives to be brave.''
The crash, the second by Tans in two years and the second involving a 737 in 10 days, occurred when bad weather forced the pilot to attempt an emergency landing minutes away from the Pucallpa airport, Tans said in an e-mailed statement.
``This operation caused the regrettable deaths of an undetermined number of passengers, some injured and a considerable number of survivors,'' according to the statement. Tans spokesman Luis Urmeneta said in a phone interview that the airline would provide a death tally when it had more information.
At least 52 people survived the crash and 37 died, AFP reported, citing Tans spokesman Jorge Belevan.
Ending Search
At least 35 injured, five of them in critical condition, were taken to Pucallpa hospitals, Radioprogramas said. Police recovered 30 charred bodies before calling off the search at nightfall, Lima-based cable television station Canal N said. The plane split in two and burst into flames after crash-landing, Canal N said.
The plane's pilot, co-pilots and cabin crew all died in the crash, Tans spokesman Jorge Belevan told reporters in a broadcast by Radioprogramas.
Pucallpa airport manager Carlos Marcone and Transport Ministry spokeswoman Jacqueline Mori didn't return calls. Officials at state aviation authority Corpac declined to comment.
A Tans Fokker F-28 crashed near the northern jungle city of Chachapoyas in January 2003, killing 46. Tans runs a fleet of Boeing 737-200 aircraft on flights to six cities, according to the airline's Web site.
Today's crash comes a week after a Medellin, Colombia-based West Caribbean Airways plane crashed in Venezuela on Aug. 16, killing 160. The Tans accident is the worst in Peru since an air force Boeing 737 leased by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. crashed in the northern jungle in 1998, killing 74.
A Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 carrying 121 passengers and crew on Aug. 14 crashed north of Athens, in Greece's worst air disaster. There were no survivo |
