UN Plane Crash In Haiti Kills All 11 On Board

A surveillance plane assigned to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti crashed into a mountain Friday, killing all 11 military personnel on board, the United Nations said.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas in New York said the Uruguayan CASA212 aircraft went down in rugged terrain west of Fonds-Verrettes near the border with the Dominican Republic.

Rescue teams had to go to the area on foot because there were no roads in the area and when they arrived they found no survivors, she said.

All bodies were recovered and being taken back to the capital of Port-au-Prince, according to a statement from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

Police Commissioner Sidney Jean-Joas in Ganthier, the municipality where the crash occurred, told The Associated Press that he sent several officers to the site to help U.N. officials.

The victims were Uruguayan and Jordanian military personnel serving with the 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force that has been in Haiti since a 2004 rebellion ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Montas said.

The United Nations has began an investigation into the crash, Montas said.

___

Associated Press Writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.