Machiques, Venezuela ? A chartered jet filled with tourists returning home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashed Tuesday in western Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board. The plane plunged to the ground after the pilot reported both engines had failed, officials said.

Wreckage was strewn across a remote pasture near Machiques, 400 miles west of Caracas near the border with Colombia just east of the Sierra de Perija mountain range. From above, only the tail of the West Caribbean Airways plane could be seen intact, lying amid charred trees.

The crash was the deadliest in Venezuelan history, according to the Aviation Safety Network, a nonprofit group that keeps a database of air disasters. It said the death toll surpassed a 1969 crash in Venezuela that killed 155, including 71 victims on the ground.

Rescuers pulled dozens of bodies from the site and recovered one of the plane’s black boxes, which could give clues to the cause of the crash, said Air Force Maj. Javier Perez, the search and rescue chief. He said the cockpit voice recorder had not been found.

As the plane developed problems just after 3 a.m., the Colombian pilot radioed to a nearby airport in western Venezuela requesting permission for an emergency landing, saying both engines had failed. But within 10 minutes, the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 fell into a steep descent and broke apart on impact, Venezuelan officials said. Residents reported hearing an explosion.

A rescue worker inspects the wreckage of a Colombian airplane after it crashed Tuesday in the area of Machiques, about 400 miles west of Caracas, Venezuela. All 160 people on board were killed, officials said.

The plane was carrying 152 tourists from Martinique, including a 21-month-old child, returning home after a week in Panama, officials said. All eight Colombian crew members also were killed.

At Martinique’s airport, relatives sobbed as a lawmaker read out the names of the victims. In the nearby town of Ducos, where about 30 of the victims reportedly lived, about 150 distraught friends and relatives gathered outside city hall.

“Martinique is a small place – 152 people dead, you imagine,” said Magalie Grivallier, a spokeswoman for the Martinique government. “It means virtually everybody had a cousin on that plane.”

The cause of the crash remained unclear. Panama’s civil aviation authority said the plane had enough fuel for the three-hour trip.