13 dead, 3 missing after jet crash-lands in sea

ROME -- A Tunisian passenger plane carrying 39 people crash-landed in the Mediterranean Sea yesterday while trying to make an emergency landing in Sicily, and at least 13 people were killed, officials said. Three others were missing.

Palermo Prosecutor Piero Grasso said 23 people survived and were taken off rescue boats on stretchers at Palermo's port. Some survivors clung to the plane's wings in rough seas while waiting for rescuers to arrive, media reports said.

Grasso said 13 people were confirmed dead and three were missing. He said the toll of 19 he reported earlier was based on overlapping information from several rescue groups, including the fire department, coast guard, and border police.

Tunisian officials said all the passengers were Italian.

Nine of the survivors were reported in serious condition.

Grasso said the ATR-72 was forced to make a water landing about 8 miles off Sicily because of a ''technical problem" that was being investigated. ''We can rule out terrorism," Grasso said.

The plane left Bari, Italy, on its way to Djerba, Tunisia. It was operated by Tuninter, an affiliate of Tunisair, the national airline of Tunisia. Tuninter said it had no immediate word on victims.

''The plane had engine problems and was trying to [emergency] land in Palermo and had to land in the sea," Nicoletta Tommessile, a spokeswoman for Italy's air safety agency, ENAV, said.

The plane contacted officials in Rome's airport tower officials at 3:24 p.m. to report engine trouble and say it would have to land at Palermo's airport. Sixteen minutes later, the plane's crew told tower officials, ''We're ditching in the sea," Tommessile said.

Palermo fire official Giovanni Saccone said that when rescuers arrived, the plane was still floating. But hours later, the tail broke off and Fire Department divers were trying to keep the wreckage afloat.

The ATR-72 is a twin-propeller plane built in France that seats up to 74 passengers.