Ecuador says military plane crashes in jungle, 22 dead

Quito: A military plane crashed in Ecuador’s jungle on Tuesday, killing all 22 people on board, the South American country’s president, Rafael Correa, said.

Nineteen soldiers were heading to a parachuting course when the aircraft went down in the Pastaza province of the country’s Amazon region. Two pilots and one mechanic, also members of the army, were killed too.

“There are no survivors,” Correa said on Twitter. “It’s a tragedy,” he added, without providing further details.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.