Peru jet crashes in jungle, at least 70 dead
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-08-24 08:39

A Peruvian Boeing 737-200 went down in a storm near the Amazon jungle city of Pucallpa, killing at least 70 of the 100 people on board, President Alejandro Toledo announced, reported AFP.

Only about 20 or 30 of the 93 passengers and seven crew members survived the crash of the TANS Airlines flight from Lima, Toledo said.

Transportation Minister Jose Ortiz had previously said most of those aboard had survived.

The aircraft was less than five kilometers (three miles) from Pucallpa airport when it crashed near a road at 3:06 p.m. (2006 GMT), according to a control tower official. The official said a storm had broken out as the plane approached the airport.

Unidentified relatives of victims of a downed Peruvian airliner arrive at Jorge Chavez airport in Lima, Peru on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005. [AP]

Pucallpa is 840 kilometers (521 miles) northeast of Lima.

A Radio Programs of Peru reporter at the scene said he saw several dead bodies, and a survivor said he had seen more than 20 people injured, mostly with burns and fractures.

The RPP reporter said he saw dead children, including babies, around the crash site. He also saw the body of a woman in a flight attendant's uniform.

Hospital official Bertha Garcia said the local hospital had received five bodies and 23 injured.

Rescue workers walk amid the debris of a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle in Pucallpa, Peru August 23, 2005. [Reuters]

Company spokesman Jorge Belevan told reporters, "Preliminary information shows that the accident was caused by a cross-wind at the moment of landing. Although the pilots are as skilled as they can be, unfortunately, the plane was lost."

One of the survivors, Tomas Ruiz, told RPP the plane appeared to be affected by the bad weather.

"With 10 minutes remaining for us to land in Pucallpa we noticed that the plane was moving too much because of the weather," he said.

Another survivor, William Zea, nursing a burned hand, told RPP, "The plane had problems and we dropped." His wife, who was not identified, also survived.

Toledo said he had ordered all necessary assistance for survivors and rescue workers, and said investigation of the cause of the crash has already started.

"I am following minute by minute the unfolding of this tragic accident which occurred in Pucallpa," a visibly upset Toledo said.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, the crash was the sixth for TANS since 1992. Most recently, 46 people died January 9, 2003, in the crash of a TANS Fokker 28-1000 in northern Peru.

The crash, the fifth this month involving an airliner, came a week after a chartered Colombian jetliner crashed in Venezuela, killing all 160 on board.

A Cypriot Boeing 737 crashed August 14 near Athens, killing all 121 people on board; a Tunisian-chartered ATR-42 dived into the sea off Sicily on August 6, killing 16 people; and an Air France Airbus A340 crashed on landing in Toronto on August 2. All 309 passengers and crew survived.

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