Plane carrying 160 crashes in Venezuela

August 16, 2005 A Colombian passenger jet carrying 152 passengers and 8 crewmembers has crashed in Western Venezuela. Officials said the plane was travelling from Panama, headed for Martinique in the Caribbean when its pilot reported engine trouble to the Caracas airport just after 3 am (07:00 UTC). The pilot reportedly asked for permission to land at Maracaibo airport shortly before the plane went missing in the remote state of Zulia, close to the Colombian border. Locals have reported hearing explosions near the scene of the crash. The crashed plane was a 19 year old MD-82 of West Caribbean Airways based in Medellín carrying the registration number HK-4374X. which was delivered only back on 10 January 2005.

The French news agency AFP reports that all passengers and crew have perished. The crash comes just two days after an airplane crash in Greece, which killed 121 people.