All 144 Feared Dead in Azores Crash of U.S. Jet

An American charter jet filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fog-covered mountain in the Azores today and exploded, and all 144 people on board were believed dead, officials and news reports said.

Maria Della Versesi, a spokeswoman at the Italian Embassy in Lisbon, said all 137 passengers were Italian and the seven crew members American. She did not release any names.

The aircraft belonged to the U.S. airline Independent Air Corp., based in Smyrna, Tenn. The flight originated in Bergamo, Italy, and was to have proceeded to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic and Montego Bay in Jamaica after a refueling stop in the Azores.

The Portuguese news agency LUSA quoted an official from the Azores Civil Protection Service as saying that about 50 bodies had been recovered and that it appeared all on board died.

Afonso Pimentel, a LUSA reporter based in the Azores, said the Boeing 707 was preparing to land at Santa Maria airport when it crashed into Pico Alto, a fog-covered, 1,794-foot-high mountain, and burst into flames.

The civil protection official told LUSA that the pilot had asked the airport to clear a runway for an emergency landing.

Asked if there were any other radio messages or warnings before the plane went down, Gualder Cordero, the Santa Maria Airport dispatcher, replied, “No, no, no no.”

A. L. Pittman, president of Independent Air Corp., said the 15-year-old company makes 400 to 500 charter flights a year, mostly in the Caribbean and Europe. Pittman, who declined to identify the seven American crew members, said the 20-year-old jetliner that crashed had a relatively low number of flight hours and no history of trouble.