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Chirac vows to shed light on Venezuela plane crash

Wed 24 Aug 2005

FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique, Aug 24 (Reuters) - France's Jacques Chirac vowed everything possible would be done to discover what caused last week's plane crash in Venezuela as he mourned the 160 victims, most of whom were French.

"Today, the hearts of all French are beating in unison with those of their brothers and sisters in Martinique," the president told reporters on Wednesday as he arrived on the French Caribbean island for a ceremony in memory of the dead.

Many of the 152 passengers on the West Caribbean flight were vacationing Martinique officials and their families returning from Panama. They died when the plane crashed into a remote farm in western Venezuela after the pilot reported engine failure.

Chirac said everything would be done to "shed light on the circumstances and reasons" for the crash

Thousands of people, many crying and hugging each other, attended the ceremony in a sports stadium, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Dressed in black and white -- colours of mourning in Martinique -- victims' relatives and friends sat in silence holding hands. Relatives laid flowers as they walked past photographs of those killed.

The dead included a baby, four children and eight Colombian crew members from the Colombian airline.

During a short meeting with Chavez after the ceremony, Chirac thanked him for the Venezuelan authorities' quick and efficient action after the crash, sources close to Chirac said.

In Paris, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and other government ministers attended a memorial ceremony at Notre Dame cathedral.

Venezuelan investigators working with Colombian and French experts are examining the two flight data recorders and plan to reconstruct the aircraft wreckage to check how both the aircraft's jet engines could have failed.

Investigators are looking into the safety and maintenance record of the Colombian airline and have suspended all of its flights while they review prior inspections