Plane with 46 on board crashes in Venezuela

According to a regional civil defense official, the airliner that went missing with 46 people on board apparently crashed in Venezuela on Thursday.

A Venezuelan airliner with 46 people on board crashed late Thursday in northern Venezuela, Union Radio reported citing civil defence regional chief Gerardo Rojas.

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Rescue crews were racing to the poorly accessible crash site in the Andes Mountains at an altitude of 4,750 metres in Paramo Piedra, where the wreckage was spotted from the air after a search for the missing Santa Barbara Airlines ATR-42, Venezuelan officials said.

There was no immediate word about the fate of the passengers and crew.

The twin-engine propeller plane reportedly disappeared from radar screens during a Venezuelan domestic flight from Merida to Maiquetia. There were no radio communications from the plane after it vanished about 40 minutes into the scheduled two-hour trip.