Plane crashes; no survivors expected

? An Atlasjet plane crashed shortly before it was to land in central Turkey early today, killing all 56 people on board, the airline’s chief executive officer said.

A rescue helicopter reached the wreckage of the plane on a mountainous region near the town of Keciborlu, in Isparta province, and reported back that no one had survived the crash, airline CEO Tuncay Doganer said.

Doganer said the cause of the crash was not known. But he ruled out weather conditions as a possible cause, saying there was no fog or strong winds at the time of the crash.

The MD 83 jetliner took off from Istanbul at 1:55 a.m. local time, headed to Isparta, but went off the radar just before landing.