Emergency workers have said there is no chance of finding survivors from a commercial plane that crashed in Venezuela with 46 people on board. A rescue helicopter found wreckage of the ATR 42-300 about 10km (six miles) north-east of the western city of Merida, where the plane had taken off.


The plane had left late on Thursday afternoon for Caracas before losing contact with air traffic controllers.
The mountainous terrain has made reaching the wreckage difficult.
"The impact was direct. The aircraft is practically pulverised," firefighter Sgt Johnny Paz told the Venezuelan TV station Globovision.
They have given us the news that there's nothing there, that there are no survivors


Olivia Gil,
relative of victim


"It crashed at an altitude of 12,000 feet (4,000 metres) against a wall of rock," he said. "There are no survivors."
A regional civil defence chief, Gerardo Rojas, said: "The plane is just too destroyed and it is in such a tough area."
Only the tail of the plane, operated by the Santa Barbara airline, was visible from the air.


Rescuers rappelled down from helicopters to search the wreckage.
Other search parties were sent on Thursday night by foot.
Difficult to navigate
At Simon Bolivar airport in Caracas, where the plane was due to arrive, relatives who had gathered waiting for news received support from psychiatrists.


Olivia Gil, a relative of a woman on board, told Associated Press news agency: "They have given us the news that there's nothing there, that there are no survivors."
Merida is located about 680km (422 miles) south-west of Caracas.
It is notoriously difficult to navigate around the city.
Pilots are given special training to take off and land at the airport because the city is surrounded by high mountains.
Visibility is often poor and planes are not allowed to take off at night.
However, the weather on departure was said to have been normal for Merida.


No distress call was reported from the pilot.
The plane that crashed was a twin-engine, turboprop aircraft produced by French-Italian company ATR.
Santa Barbara airline's president, Jorge Alvarez, said the plane had been well maintained and had no history of technical problems.
The plane was about 20 years old and the pilot had been working for Santa Barbara for eight years, he said.
Those aboard included three crew members and 43 passengers.
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