From correspondents in Americas, 02:30 AM IST

All nine passengers of a small plane died Thursday when it crashed in the southern Chilean city of Puerto Montt, some 1,000 km south of capital Santiago.

The accident happened minutes after the plane - a Beechcraft 99A - took off from La Paloma airstrip, headed for Melinka island. The plane crashed and caught fire on barren land, some 500 metres off a wealthy neighbourhood of Puerto Montt.

'Something was shaking in the plane's left wing,' one eyewitness was quoted as saying in Chilean media.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)