Amazon Indians find Brazil plane crash survivors

By Raymond Colitt

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Nine people of 11 on a small plane survived a crash landing on a river in Brazil's Amazon rain forest after native Indians notified authorities, who dispatched a rescue mission, the government said on Friday.

The military aircraft, which went missing on Thursday, was carrying four crew members and seven health officials on a vaccination campaign in remote areas of the jungle.

The C-98 Cessna plane landed on the Itui river, a tributary to the Javari river, in the far western Amazon region. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

"We are happy to be alive. The plane stopped in mid-air and we panicked," one of the survivors told UOL news after being airlifted to Cruzeiro do Sul, a city in Acre state.

"The pilot plunged the plane into the river," the survivor said.

"Apparently, they are all ok," the chief physician of the Cruzeiro do Sul hospital told Globo news.

Divers would continue to search the river for two missing people who had been on board, the air force said in a statement.

Members of the Matis tribe spotted the wreckage and notified local authorities. The site is close to where the borders of Brazil, Colombia and Peru meet.