Yesilyurt - An Atlasjet plane crashed on a rocky mountain shortly before it was due to land in southwest Turkey early Friday, killing all 57 people on board. The cause was not immediately known.

The wreckage of the AtlasJet Airline MD-83 is seen on the hills near Cukuroren village in Isparta province, central Turkey, November 30, 2007. [Agencies]

Pieces of wreckage and personal belongings, including suitcases, clothing and magazines, were strewn across the hillside. Rescue workers in bright yellow jackets entered the plane's fuselage, which lay amid boulders and pine trees. Ambulances ferried the dead down a dirt track near the crash site, heading for morgues.

"The seats were detached and all over the place. Some of the seat belts were still around the bodies," said medic Mustafa Dagci, one of the first people to reach the site. "Some bodies were intact, others were in pieces."

Dagci said he and other rescue workers had rushed to the scene, but quickly lost hope of finding survivors when they saw the extent of the devastation.

The MD-83, carrying 50 passengers and seven crew members, took off from Istanbul around 1 am local time and was headed to Isparta on a flight of about one hour. It went off the radar just before landing at the airport.

Authorities earlier said there were 49 passengers, but raised the figure to 50, to include a baby on board.

At about 7 am, a rescue helicopter reached the plane's wreckage near the village of Yesilyurt, in Isparta province, and reported that no one had survived the crash, Tuncay Doganer, the airline's chief executive, said.

Doganer said the cause was unknown, but ruled out technical failure or maintenance problems and said the weather and visibility were good.

"The pilot saw the airport and informed the tower that it was inbound. The plane then disappeared," he said.

Investigators found the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, which will help them determine the cause of the crash, the civil aviation authority said.

"As a nation, our pain is great because of this regrettable accident," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement.

"The technical investigation into the cause of this painful accident is continuing. The results of the investigation will help avoid similar accidents in the future."

Ali Ceylan said his 22-year-old daughter-in-law, her 6-week-old child and her mother perished in the crash. The baby was born in Istanbul and the family was returning to their home in Isparta.

"We were going to see our grandchild for the first time," Ceylan said. "It's very hard for us. It's enough to make us go mad."

He said his son, a police officer, was in shock and being treated with tranquilizers.

Gulperi Ayan, who also traveled to the crash site, said a friend, stage actor Sakir Ozsoy, was on the plane because he was going to attend his grandmother's funeral in Isparta.

"Now we have two funerals to hold," she said.

A team of investigators, including two pilots, three engineers and an air traffic control expert, went to the area, Anatolia news agency reported. Forensic experts were also sent to investigate.

Atlasjet said the wreckage of the plane was found on a mountain around 1,500 m high, and that rescuers initially had difficulty reaching the site because of the rugged terrain.

Much of the wreckage lay amid snow patches 200 m from the top of the mountain.

Atlasjet, a private airline established in 2001, operates regular flights inside Turkey and chartered flights to Europe and other foreign destinations.