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Plane crashes in Venezuela, up to 46 on board
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by ryan | February 21, 2008 at 05:45 pm
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Developing story. If you have any further information or footage please add it.
A commercial plane carrying up to 46 people crashed in eastern Venezuela on Thursday, CNN's Spanish television news channel said.
Local media said the plane crashed in the state of Merida. The state capital, also named Merida, is 680 km (422 miles) southwest of Caracas. (Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
AP reports that plane has gone missing rather than crashed.
A commercial airliner with 46 people on board was reported missing Thursday in western Venezuela, officials said.
The twin-engine plane failed to contact traffic controllers as expected after it took off from Merida en route to Caracas' airport, said Noel Marquez, director of Venezuela's emergency management agency in Merida.
"It did not make contact with the control towers," Marquez said. He said authorities were searching for the plane and confirmed that it belonged to Santa Barbara, a small Venezuelan airline that covers domestic routes.
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at 17:46 on February 21st, 2008
I think this is an important story and would benefit from other NowPublic contributors working on it. I've flagged it as News Wanted and invite others in relevant locations to look for more evidence.
at 17:42 on February 23rd, 2008
On Saturday evening, the first passenger bodies were retrieved from the Venezuelan Andes. The black crash data of the Santa Barbara airline plane were also found by Venezuelan authorities. An explanation on this tragic event is most wanted as there was no distress call prior to the crash. Santa Barbara airline pilots were trained and had wide expertise on the Andes flying. The official retrieving operation of will continue on Sunday. French specialists on plane crashes are expected in Venezuela soon.