Latest reports quoted Luxembourg government spokeswoman Anne Weiler as saying that the Luxair Fokker-50 turboprop plane crashedand caught fire in a field, with 19 passengers and three crews on board.

Seventeen people died in the crash, and three of five survivorsdied in hospital.

The trapped pilot was freed from the damaged cockpit by rescuers after a three-hour operation.

Both Luxembourg Prime Minster Jean-Claude Juncker and German Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe went to the scene.

The plane crashed near Niederanven, 10 kilometers from the capital's Findel airport. It is an area of gently rolling wooded hills and farmland.

A spokesman for the Luxembourg transport ministry said most of the passengers were German businessmen. No one was injured on the ground.

The cause of the crash remains unclear, though the fog is believed to have been a contributory factor. Officials said the control tower received no distress call before the crash.

It was the second fatal plane crash in Luxembourg in two decades. On September 29, 1982, a Soviet-made IL-62 skidded off a runway at Luxembourg's airport and crashed into nearby woods, killing 10 people.

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2002)