CARACAS, Venezuela — A plane carrying tourists to the Caribbean island of Margarita crashed into a shantytown in central Venezuela shortly after takeoff, killing all 24 people aboard and injuring three people on the ground.
The passengers included three U.S. citizens, five Dutch nationals, four Italians, two Hungarians, two Venezuelans, one Austrian and possibly three Canadians. All four Venezuelan crew members perished, officials said.
The aging DC-3 propeller plane burst into flames upon impact Thursday evening, setting fire to homes and showering the Abobo shantytown in Ciudad Bolivar with debris. A 22-year-old woman and her two children suffered burns.
Rutaca Airlines Flight 224 had left from Canaima, in southern Bolivar state, and had stopped in Ciudad Bolivar for refueling before heading on to Porlamar on the popular tourist island of Margarita.
Ciudad Bolivar is about 335 miles southeast of Caracas, while Canaima is used by tourists to visit Venezuela's famed Angel Falls, the world's highest.
Moments after takeoff in Ciudad Bolivar, pilot Angel Lopez radioed air traffic controllers that he was turning back, but he didn't say why and didn't declare an emergency, said Benjamin Uquillas, a spokesman for Venezuela's Air Rescue Service agency.
Witnesses said they saw the plane come down with one of its two engines on fire, smash into a large tree and burst into flames. A wing spun off, slamming into the homes, said Jose Laurencia Silva, a reporter for the newspaper El Expreso Bolivar.
Shantytown residents Neida del Carmen Alcacer, 22, and her children Valentina, 2, and Manuel, 6 months, were in stable condition with burns at a local hospital, said Angel Rangel, director of Venezuela's national civil defense agency.
National Guard troops stood guard as firefighters doused flames amid brush in the shantytown. Officials recovered bodies from the wreckage and took them to a morgue in Ciudad Bolivar, where authorities were trying to contact foreign embassies.
The DC-3 is a U.S.-built, twin-propeller aircraft built from 1935-46. Hundreds remain in service throughout the world as cargo and charter planes.
The names and hometowns of the victims were not immediately available.