By JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 22, 12:57 PM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela - All 46 people aboard a Venezuelan passenger plane died when it slammed into an Andean mountain, rescue crews confirmed Friday.
"By the way it crashed we can determine there are no survivors," said Gen. Ramon Vinas, head of the civil aviation authority.
Search teams reached the remote site by helicopter and had to lower themselves with ropes onto the "complicated" mountainous terrain, Vinas said.
"The impact was direct. The aircraft is practically pulverized," firefighter Sgt. Jhonny Paz told the Venezuelan television channel Globovision.
The French-made ATR 42-300 carrying 43 passengers and three crew members crashed Thursday at an altitude of 13,500 feet in an area known as Los Conejos plateau within the Sierra La Culata National Park, officials said.
The plane went down about 6 miles from the airport in the Andean city of Merida, where the Santa Barbara Airlines flight departed for Caracas, Vinas said.
Once the plane took off, the control tower received no further communication from the pilot, according to Jorge Alvarez, president of Santa Barbara, a small airline that covers domestic routes in Venezuela.
Relatives and friends of the victims gathered in tears, some of them embracing, at Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas.
"We join in the profound pain of all the relatives of our passengers and co-workers," the airline said in a statement. It pledged to cooperate fully in an investigation.
Aircraft manufacturer ATR, based in Toulouse, France, said specialists from the company and the French Accident Bureau were leaving immediately to assist investigators.
The weather was normal for Merida on Thursday, with some areas sunny and fog at higher elevations, said Lt. Luis Uzcategui of the Merida fire department.
"In that mountainous area there always tends to be more fog due to the altitude," Uzcategui said.
Among the dead were the mayor of a small town in Merida state, Alexander Quintero; his 11-year-old boy; and two young relatives of federal Public Safety Vice Minister Tarek El Aissami, state Gov. Florencio Porras said.
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Associated Press writers Sandra Sierra and Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.
A Venezuelan plane with 46 passengers onboard has been reported missing in western Venezuela, officials say.

The Santa Barbara Airlines plane took off just before dusk from the city of Mérida en route to Simón Bolívar International Airport outside the capital city of Caracas.

Noel Marquez, director of Venezuela's emergency management agency in Mérida, said the plane has failed to contact control towers. Civil Defense chief General Antonio Rivero told reporters that it is unknown whether or not the plane crashed or is simply missing.

Mérida a town roughly 680 kilometers (422 miles) from Caracas is a popular tourist location.