Eleven dead in UN plane crash in Haiti

Eleven people died when a UN plane slammed into the side of a mountain in eastern Haiti while on a surveillance mission along the border with the Dominican Republic, the UN mission in Haiti said.

The mission known as MINUSTAH said in a statement that a rescue team found no survivors among the 11 passengers and crew aboard the CASA 212 military plane belonging to the Uruguayan contingent of MINUSTAH.

At United Nations headquarters in New York, spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci, quoted MINUSTAH sources as saying that the dead were Uruguayan and Jordanian military officers serving with the mission. But she could not give a breakdown.

MINUSTAH said the crash occurred in the municipality of Ganthier on Friday, near the frontier with the Dominican Republic and said the bodies had been recovered and would be taken to Port-au-Prince.

"The cause of the crash is not known at this point and an investigation is under way," the mission added.

The Brazilian-led MINUSTAH has been deployed in the impoverished Caribbean nation of eight million people since mid-2004.

The mission fields 9,123 uniformed personnel -- 7057 troops and 2066 police.