Wreckage of missing plane found, 30 dead

The plane’s wreckage was found on Mount Sumagaya, about 45 km north-east of the plane’s destination, rescue officials said. Air transportation officials said the plane was making a visual, not instrument, landing approach when it disappeared. The plane had made an unscheduled stop at another airport and therefore was not on a normal flight path.

The plane’s route took it over an area of high mountains and deep ravines, with thick clouds covering some slopes.

The plane was carrying 99 passengers, including five children, and five crewwhen it disappeared.

In its last radio call, the Pilot said he was 68 km from the airport at an altitude of 3,500 meters and starting to descend. There was no report that the plane was in trouble.

Air transport officials said the plane’s path from that point to the airport would have taken it over an area with mountain peaks ranging from 2,220 meters to 2,425 meters.

A local religious group and an Army detachment reported hearing an explosion near the 2,200-meter Mount Sumagaya at about the time the plane disappeared.Air transportation office operations chief Carlos Tanega said investigators were looking into similarities with the crash of a small Cessna plane exactly a year earlier.