BUENOS AIRES, SEPT 1: An Argentine passenger jet crashed just after takeoff into a busy roadway here on Tuesday night, killing 80 people and injuring 23 others, CNN said on Wednesday quoting Lapa airline.The Boeing 737, belonging to private airline Lapa, was bound for Argentina's second-largest city Cordoba with 95 passengers and six crew members on board. It lost control on the Aeroparque Jorge Newbery runway, careened through the perimeter fence in flames onto a busy road by the river Plate and came to a halt in a golf course.Buenos Aires Mayor Fernando de la Rua said several cars were dragged by the plane before it skidded onto the driving range.The airport was immediately closed and helicopters and ambulances were pressed into service to rescue victims and take them to hospitals while dozens of fire engines soaked the wreckage which was still burning.A Reuters photographer at the scene said the whole area was soaked in jet fuel while chunks of wreckage littered the site.Peopleplaying golf there were among the first to rescue passengers and said only a few walked away unhurt. One Coast Guard member, who pulled mutilated people who died almost immediately, said one woman walked from the plane with her hands and head burned. "She just knelt down to pray," he said.Rescue workers with dogs searched the charred, mangled wreckage for passengers and possible victims from cars hit by the burning aircraft."I heard the turbines giving it speed. It rose half meter into the air, then all I heard was silence," recalls one of the survivor, Fabian Nunez. "Most people were on fire and only one door was opened. We were fighting to get out of our seats when I huge fire and then people started running. I reached the door and jumped onto the escape shoot. Lots of people fell with me," Nunez adds.Local media reports estimated that 80 people could have died and city hospitals received 30 injured people, including seven hurt on the ground. If that death toll is confirmed, the accident wouldrepresent the worst civil air disaster in Argentina's history."We still have to cross-check the list of passengers who boarded the plane with the list of survivors in hospital," Argentine Security Secretary Miguel Angel Toma told reporters. "On that basis, we will be able to estimate a preliminary toll." Toma said authorities were still trying to determine how many passersby were killed when Flight 3142 hit the ground.
