At least 13 people died on Thursday when the army plane in which they were traveling crashed near a gas plant on Peru's southern coast, military officials said. "Thirteen people were killed this morning in the plane crash near the Camisea gas plant. The pilot was a civilian," a spokesman for the army in Lima told Reuters. No other passenger details were immediately available. The plane crashed just 720 feet (220 meters) from the plant as it tried to land on the runway of the airport in Pisco, 186 miles (300 km) south of Lima, an airport official said. Firefighter Romer Chacaliasa told Reuters the plane "was completely burnt out." The accident happened at around 11:30 a.m (12:30 p.m. EDT/1630 GMT). The liquefaction plant, which processes gas from Peru's giant Camisea field in the southern jungle, was not affected and the cause of the crash was not immediately known. Peru started pumping gas from Camisea to Lima via a 430-mile (700-km) pipeline in August. --SP 0002 Local Time 2102 GMT
