Moments after takeoff in Ciudad Bolivar, pilot Angel Lopez radioed air traffic controllers that he was turning back, but he didn't say why and didn't declare an emergency, said Benjamin Uquillas, a spokesman for Venezuela's Air Rescue Service agency. Witnesses said they saw the plane come down with one of its two engines on fire, smash into a large tree and burst into flames. A wing spun off, slamming into the homes, said Jose Laurencia Silva, a reporter for the newspaper El Expreso Bolivar. National Guard troops stood guard as firefighters doused flames amid brush in the shantytown. Officials recovered bodies from the wreckage and took them to a morgue in Ciudad Bolivar, where authorities were trying to contact foreign embassies.
Hundreds remain in service throughout the world as cargo and charter planes.
The names and hometowns of the victims were not immediately available. Thousands of anti-ETA demonstrators have marched through the Basque city of San Sebastian in protest at the killing of a Spanish navy cook. Ramon Diaz Garcia was laid to rest earlier on Saturday in a private ceremony near the city where he was killed in a car bomb attack on Friday. Politicians immediately pointed the finger at ETA, which claimed responsibility for 23 killings in 2000. The protest, led by politicians and members of the victim's local trade union, wound its way slowly and in virtual silence through San Sebastian.