A plane with 47 people onboard crashed on Monday near Ciudad Guayana in southeastern Venezuela, the number of victims is unknown, Venezuelan media reported.
The ATR-42 plane of the state-owned air carrier Conviasa, with 43 passengers and four crew members onboard fell shortly after taking off from the Manuel Carlos Piar Airport in Ciudad Guayana. It fell some 10 km (six miles) from the nearby city of Puerto Ordaz, on the premises of the state-run Sidor steel corporation.
"The accident occurred when the aircraft took off from the Ciudad Guayana airport. Some six miles later, a malfunction occurred, which caused it to crash land," the minister of transport and communications, Francisco Garces, told the state-owned VTV station.
He said the death toll is unknown, but "a number of survivors are being taken to hospitals in the city."
Francisco Rangel Gomez, the governor of the State of Bolivar, in which the airport is located, told the Caracas-headquartered TeleSUR TV that 23 people had been injured in the accident.
"The apparent cause [of the crash] is the loss of control of the aircraft, which was reported to the control tower by the plane's commander," the official said.
El Universal newspaper reported that only two deaths have been so far confirmed.
MOSCOW, September 13 (RIA Novosti)
