Plane crashes in Peruvian jungle

A number of injured have been rescued from the crash site

A passenger plane has crashed in Peru's Amazon jungle, with at least 40 of the 100 on board now known to have died.
The Tans Boeing 737-200 was on an internal flight from the capital Lima to the city of Pucallpa when it made an emergency landing in bad weather.

The death toll had initially been put as high as 70, but local officials now say 40 bodies have been recovered.

Sixteen foreigners, including 11 Americans, were on board when the plane crashed on Tuesday afternoon.

Final destination

Tans flight 204 came down in a swamp just five kilometres (three miles) from Pucallpa airport at 1506 (2006GMT).

FLIGHT TJ204
92 passengers, eight crew
11 US citizens
Two Italians
One Colombian
One Spaniard

Pucallpa is 490km (305 miles) north-east of Lima.

After a stop in Pucallpa the plane had been due to travel on to Iquitos in the northern jungle near the Colombian and Brazilian borders, a popular tourist destination.

Although the cause of the crash is not yet known, a storm had just broken as the plane came in to land, witnesses said.

"It seems it was a matter of the weather. Ten minutes before we were to land in Pucallpa, the plane began to shake a lot," said passenger Tomas Ruiz.

A Tans spokesman said that "preliminary information" indicated that wind shear caused by violent crosswinds could be to blame.

It is not yet known whether the pilot is among the survivors.

The search of the crash site has now been abandoned for the night, and will resume early on Wednesday morning.

Police said that survivors suffered severe burns and broken limbs.



The crash comes a week after a Colombian plane crashed in Venezuela killing all 160 people on board, most of them French citizens from the Caribbean island of Martinique.

And on 14 August a Cypriot plane crashed near Athens killing all 121 passengers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4178868.stm