At least six dead in a plane crash in Venezuela

Six dead, including the president of the professional football club Estudiantes de Méridaleft a plane crash that occurred this Wednesday in Venezuela, authorities reported.

A Learjet 55 plane crashed in the town of Charallave, in the state of Miranda (central-north), a neighbor of Caracas, without “the causes” having been determined, Carlos Pérez Ampueda, deputy minister for Risk Management and Protection, reported on Twitter. Civil.

“Unfortunately, six people died”, two crew members and four passengers, he specified.

Pérez Ampueda identified among the passengers Christian Toni, president of Estudiantes de Mérida, one of the clubs with the longest tradition in Venezuelan soccer and twice champion, in 1980 and 1985.

Among the deceased is the president of the professional soccer club Estudiantes de Mérida, Christian Toni

The team has competed in the Copa Libertadores, reaching the quarterfinals in 1999, and in the Copa Sudamericana.

“With deep pain and consternation, we received the news. Venezuelan soccer is in mourning”, the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) lamented in a message.

According to the newspaper El Nacional, the plane took off from Puerto Cabello and declared an emergency near the Oscar Machado Zuloaga Airport, better known as Caracas Airport, where it collapsed.

At 3:37 pm it crashed to the ground according to the open source record Flightradar24.com.

The list of deceased is completed by the crew members Guillermo Vargas and Milton Quigua, and the passengers Aldo Camacho, Juan Barajas, Ronald Camacho and Christian Toni.