A Chilean air force plane carrying 21 people including a local television crew crashed off the Pacific coast, officials said. The accident occurred Friday over the Juan Fernandez archipelago, about 700 kilometres from the mainland. Officials feared that the 18 passengers and three crew members did not survive, according to a report of the German Press Agency "DPA". Felipe Paredes, control tower chief at the island airport, said the plane lost control after circling a mountain and getting caught in a strong crosswind while attempting to land. "We must accept as fact this terrible accident that once more has Juan Fernandez (archipelago) in mourning," Mayor Leopoldo Gonzalez said. The passengers were participating in reconstruction activities following the magnitude-8.8 earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the islands' main town on February 27.
