Crash of military plane in jungle kills 22

A military aircraft carrying 19 army paratroopers and two crew members crashed in Ecuador’s jungle on Tuesday killing all on board according to a government spokesman. The crash occurred near the town of Fatima in Pastaza Province, in Ecuador’s Amazon region, 140 miles east of Quito.

Soldiers recover body Tuesday night. Photo: El Comercio

The aircraft, an Israeli-made Arava 206, was carrying the paratroopers to a nearby jump site when it went down in rugged terrain at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon.

“There are no survivors,” President Rafael Correa said in a Tuesday night Tweet. “We must come together to support to families of those who have perished. This is a tragedy.”

Rescue and recovery personnel reached the crash site after dark and worked through the night to recover bodies of the victims.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. The Arava 206 aircraft was manufactured in the late 1960s or early 1970s, the army said.