A small plane carrying Spanish tourists crashed off the Portuguese island of Madeira and all 10 people aboard were believed killed, officials said today.
The twin-engine Beechcraft 200 fell into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off at 9.53 p.m. yesterday from Funchal airport on Madeira, about 600 kilometres west of Morocco, a rescue spokesman said.
The plane was bound for Malaga, Spain.
The US-registered plane was carrying a British pilot and nine Spaniards, comprising three couples and three children, a spokesman for the Spanish embassy said. They were tourists returning to Malaga after spending the week in Madeira.
Rescue teams found wreckage off Madeira's coast and recovered a woman's body.
The weather was good and the cause of the crash was not immediately known.