Deaths in Venezuela plane crash

The crash killed 15 people and local hospitals are struggling totreat the injured [AFP]

An aircraft carrying 51 passengers and crew has crashed shortly after take-off in eastern Venezuela, killing 15 people, local fire services say.
Operated by Conviasa, a state-run airline, the passenger jet crashed 10km from the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz at 14:30 GMT (10am local time) on Monday, officials said.
"There was a miracle here today, we have 36 people who survived, with problems, but alive thank God, all of them treatable and many of them already in their homes," local governor Francisco Rangel Gomez said.
Al Jazeera's Dima Khatib, reporting from Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, said: "Two hospitals in the city have said they are finding it difficult to cope with the situation. They are asking people to donate blood to help speed up medical assistance to the injured.
Crashed inside industrial zone
"The plane fell onto a local metal factory inside a huge industrial zone and it fell on to an area of waste. We have now confirmed that no one on the ground was hurt ... all the injured and dead were on the plane."
Rescue workers were tending to injured victims, Jose Zamora, the state emergency management director, told the Venezuelan television channel Globovision.He said the jet was headed to Margarita Island when it crashed shortly after take-off.
Our correspondent said the "pilot did report he was having problems; we assume they were mechanical as there were no reports of bad weather".
Gomez, the governor, said the crash was apparently caused by "loss of control" of the plane.
The state airline, Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronauticas y Servicios Aeros SA, began operations in 2004. It says it serves destinations in Venezuela, the Caribbean, Argentina, Iran and Syria.
One of the world's deadliest airplane crashes, a 2005 accident that killed 160 people, happened in Venezuela.