CARACAS/PARIS, Aug. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- A Colombian MD-82 airliner with 152 passengers, all French nationals, and eight crew members on board crashed in western Venezuela early Tuesday and French President Jacques Chirac said he was "deeply saddened."

    Venezuelan Interior Minister Jesse Chacon said the eight-personcrew was Colombian and it was unlikely that there could be any survivors. The passengers were returning to the French Caribbean island of Martinique after a week's vacation in Panama.

    "According to our estimates, the plane crashed in Sierra de Perija between 3:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) and 3:45 a.m. (0745 GMT)," Chacon told local television.

    He said the airliner, which was en route from Panama to Martinique, suffered engine trouble before coming down between twofarms in the western Venezuelan border state of Zulia.

    According to reports from the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, a Martinique woman, Gertrude Romain, escaped the deadly crash because she decided at the last minute to forgo a holiday and stay near her ailing son.     

    FIRST BLACK BOX FOUND

[1] [2] [3] [4]