Isparta (Turkey), Nov. 30 (Reuters): A Turkish domestic airliner crashed in the mountains in southwest Turkey today, killing all 57 people on board, officials said.

Private AtlasJet Airlines chief executive Tuncay Doganer said the cause of the crash was not clear as weather conditions were normal and the aircraft had no known technical problems. Officials said all on board were Turkish.

The 165-seat MD 83 plane, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas, crashed in the early hours of today before it was due to land in the city of Isparta. It had been flying from Istanbul with 49 passengers and seven crew. The plane crashed outside Keciborlu, a town some 12 km from Isparta’s Suleyman Demirel airport.

The death toll, previously reported as 56, rose to 57 as a baby on the plane had not been counted, Turkish Pilots Association chairman Tuna Gurel told a news conference, adding it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash.

Fifty-three of the bodies have been recovered.

Media reports said emergency workers had retrieved the plane’s “black boxes”, or data recorders, which were expected to shed light on the cause of the crash. Turkey is in the grip of winter with snow common in much of the country.

“No matter what measures you take, plane accidents happen and we see that 80 to 85 per cent are due to human error,” said transport minister Binali Yildirim, adding regular inspections had been carried out on the leased plane. Rescue workers reached the mountainous crash site after military helicopters spotted the wreckage of the airliner.

Sahin Kartal, who lost his nephew and sister-in-law, later reached the cordoned-off site in the forested mountain. “The authorities made us wait for news until this hour. They told us that the plane took off and then landed, but we didn’t know it landed like this,” Kartal told Reuters.