A Venezuelan passenger plane slammed into a steep mountainside in the Andes, killing all 46 people on board, officials said Friday according to The Associated Press. «By the way it crashed we can determine there are no survivors,» said Gen. Ramon Vinas, head of the civil aviation authority. Search teams reached the remote site by helicopter and had to lower themselves with ropes onto the «complicated» mountainous terrain, Vinas said. «The impact was direct. The aircraft is practically pulverized,» firefighter Sgt. Jhonny Paz told the Venezuelan television channel Globovision. President Hugo Chavez declared that «Venezuela is in mourning» and called for a full investigation.
