Unidentified relatives of the victims of a plane crash arrive Saturday at Bari airport, southern Italy.
Rome — A Tunisian passenger plane carrying 39 people crash-landed in the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday while trying to make an emergency landing in Sicily because of engine trouble, and at least 13 people were killed, officials said. Three others were missing.
Palermo Prosecutor Piero Grasso told The Associated Press that 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.
This photo made available by the Financial Police, shows the wreckage of a plane which crash-landed Saturday in the Mediterranean Sea off Palermo's port on the Sicilian coast, southern Italy. A Tunisian airliner heading for an emergency landing in Sicily ditched into rough seas off the Mediterranean island, and at least 13 of the 39 people aboard perished, an Italian news report said.
"There are no bodies in the wreckage," Grasso said.
He added that the fuselage of the ATR-72 was being towed to shore.
Palermo port official Vincenzo Pace told SKY TG24 TV that some bodies were found several miles from the wreckage, apparently having been carried away in rough seas.
Nine survivors were reported in serious condition. At least three crewmembers survived.
Grasso said the plane was forced to make a water landing about eight miles off Sicily because of a "technical problem" that was being investigated by authorities.
"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.
Tunisian officials said all the passengers were Italian.
The ATR-72, which was built in France, has a two-person crew and seats up to 74 passengers. Its maiden flight was in 1988.
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