LISBON, Portugal (AP) - Rescue crews searched the coast of Portugal's Madeira Islands for bodies Friday after a Beechcraft airplane crashed into the sea, apparently killing all nine people on board, officials said.
The control tower at Funchal, Madeira's capital, lost contact with the twin-engine plane seven minutes after it took off late Thursday, Air Force Operational Command spokesman Maj. Paulo Goncalves said.
The plane rose to 2,000 feet after takeoff but then veered left and dropped to 900 feet before disappearing from radar, said Pedro Gaspar, a spokesman for the Airports and Navigation Authority.
Crews retrieved the body of a woman passenger as well as wreckage from the plane, Goncalves said. Planes, helicopters and boats were searching rocky bays where the tide was expected to carry the bodies, he said.
The Beechcraft 200 was carrying eight Spaniards and a British pilot from the islands off northwest Africa to the southern Spanish city of Malaga, Goncalves said.
Spanish state radio said the plane's passengers were from Malaga, and five were members of the same family.
Three children were among those on board, the Portuguese national news agency Lusa reported.
``It's unlikely there will be any survivors,'' Goncalves said.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the accident. The control tower at Funchal International Airport received no mayday call from the pilot, Gaspar said.
``There was no contact to indicate there were any problems or difficulties,'' Gaspar said, adding that visibility was good at the time of the crash.
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