Accidente aéreo en Venezuela

Emergency services have arrived at the crash site of a Colombian airliner in the Venezuelan mountains. All 160 people on board the West Caribbean Airways flight from Panama to Martinique died in the impact.

This is the second accident this year involving West Caribbean Airways.

This report from Jeremy McDermott:

All the rescuers found in the mountains of the Sierra de Perija in Venezuela was the scattered wreckage of the plane and the charred corpses of its occupants. There were no survivors.

The plane not only lost both of its engines - a fact revealed from its last radio messages - but the aircraft exploded on impact, producing a fireball that was seen kilometres away. The aircraft's black box has been found and will be analysed by experts from Venezuela and France, which has sent its own investigators to look into the tragedy.

West Caribbean Airways is now under the microscope. The company lost another aircraft in March this year in a crash which killed eight people. The airline is in severe financial difficulties and even before this disaster had been told to tighten up its maintenance programme by the Colombian Aviation Authority. The company's promised to suspend flights until preliminary investigations are completed. Jeremy McDermott, BBC News, Medellin

scattered wreckage
restos desparramados del avión

charred corpses
cuerpos calcinados

occupants
pasajeros

exploded on impact
explotó por el impacto

black box
caja negra

to look into
investigar

under the microscope
bajo la lupa, bajo investigación

lost another aircraft
perdió otro avión, se refiere al hecho de que la empresa ya había sufrido un accidente

in severe financial difficulties
en graves problemas financieros

to tighten up
aumentar la rigurosidad