At least 41 people, including foreign tourists, are now confirmed to have died in last night's plane crash in Peru's northern jungle.
Rescue workers using machetes hacked through the swamp in a bid to locate more bodies from the wreckage of the aircraft, which crashed at 9.06pm Irish time almost 800km from the capital, Lima.
Officials from the state airline TANS today confirmed that the number of survivors had risen by five to 57, with two others still listed as missing among the total of 100 people on board.
At least 16 foreigners were on board the plane, including 11 US citizens, two Italians, a Colombian, an Australian and a Spaniard. However, reports that some of them were among the dead have not been officially confirmed.
The plane was just three kilometres from Pucallpa airport when it crashed ten minutes before it was due to land.
Experts said that the plane was caught in a fierce storm that was unusual for this time of year, while survivors said the plane was in flames before it hit the ground.
The plane was due to fly onwards to the Amazon city of Iquitos, a popular tourist destination.
It was the third major accident involving a passenger airplane in less than two weeks.
121 people died when a Cypriot airliner crashed near the Greek capital, Athens, last Sunday. 160 French citizens were killed last Tuesday when a West Caribbean Airways plane crashed en route from Panama to the island of Martinique.
