All 160 people aboard a West Caribbean Airways jet that crashed today on Venezuela 's border with Colombia have been confirmed killed.
A Macdonald Douglas MD80 plane similar to the West Caribbean Airways airliner crashed in a mountainous region near Venezuela's border with Colombia
All the 152 passengers were French nationals from Martinique. Most were local government officials in who had been on holiday with their families.
An official at the Fort-de-France airport in Martinique said among those killed was a baby and four children.
The plane was en route from Panama to the French Caribbean island territory of Martinique when it went down after suffering engine failure, Venezuelan officials said.
French President Jacques Chirac said he had learned "with very deep emotion of the terrible air disaster which occurred in Venezuela and in which a very great number of victims were French," his office said.
It was later confirmed all the passengers were French. Martinique is a department with rights equal to other administrative areas in mainland France and has representatives in the French parliament.
Mr Chirac's office said the president had ordered overseas territories minister Francois Baroin to travel to Martinique.
The plane was headed from Panama to Martinique when its pilot reported engine trouble to the Caracas airport, said Francisco Paz, president of the National Aviation Institute.
Airport authorities lost radio contact with the plane later in the area of Machiques, in the western state of Zulia, he said.
"Residents in the area said they heard an explosion," Mr Paz said. "Air rescue teams are travelling to the area right now by air and by land."
He said the pilot reported trouble with both engines to the Caracas air control tower just after 3am local time, and authorities lost contact with the plane roughly 10 minutes later.
Heavy rainfall hampered Venezuelan troops as they scoured the scattered wreckage. Local television stations showed images of smoldering plane parts and earth ploughed up by the crash.
Agencies