11 killed in UN Haiti plane crash

Five Jordanians and six Uruguayans belonging to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti were killed Friday when their airplane crashed while on a border surveillance mission, the UN mission in Haiti said.The mission known as MINUSTAH said in a statement that a rescue team found no survivors among the 11 passengers and crew aboard the CASA 212 military plane belonging to Uruguayan peacekeepers.

The plane slammed into the side of a mountain in eastern Haiti along the border with the Dominican Republic, the UN mission in Haiti said.

In Montevideo, the Uruguayan Air Force gave the breakdown by nationality.MINUSTAH said the plane went down in Ganthier municipality, near the Dominican Republic border, and said the bodies had been recovered and would be taken to Port-au-Prince."The cause of the crash is not known at this point and an investigation is under way," the mission added.

The Brazilian-led MINUSTAH has been deployed in the impoverished Caribbean nation of eight million people since mid-2004. The mission fields 9,123 uniformed personnel 7,057 troops and 2,066 police, under the command of Brazilian General Floriano Peixoto. -AFP