A Venezuelan passenger plane slammed into the sheer face of an Andean mountainside shortly after take-off from this tourist city and all 46 people on board were killed, officials said yesterday.

Rescuers rappelled from helicopters to search for remains in the shattered wreckage lodged 4,000 metres above sea level. Only the tail of the Santa Barbara airline plane could be seen from the air.

"This plane was found completely wrecked, smashed against the face of one of the mountains," civil defence chief Antonio Rivero said. "Unfortunately everyone aboard died."

The twin-engine plane crashed 10 kilometres from the mountain tourist city of Merida after taking off for the capital Caracas on Thursday before dusk in a notoriously difficult region to navigate.

Authorities said they did not know what caused the plane to crash among mountain peaks that are often covered in snow and known for its condors and adventure hiking trails.

In Thursday's crash, the weather was good, the roughly 20-year-old plane had a solid maintenance record and no history of technical problems. The pilot was experienced and had specialised training for flying through the Andes. There was no evidence the pilot made distress calls before crashing with 43 passengers and a crew of three aboard.

A well-known Venezuelan political analyst, a local mayor, relatives of a senior government official and an American woman working at the Venezuelan arm of financial services company Stanford Financial Group died in the crash, authorities said.

The passenger list also included an 11-year-old boy.

Olivia Gil, a relative of a woman on board, fought back tears behind wide sunglasses but kept up hope for a miracle.

"They have given us the news that there's nothing there, that there are no survivors but now rescuers are going in to look," she said, adding with a shrug, "We just don't know."

Freddy Belisario, an insurance company worker, considered himself a survivor. He had been scheduled to take the flight but moved up his trip by a few hours "on an impulse".

"It's a day when I was not on the list (to die). My time was not due," he said, adding he would not be flying for a while because "I don't want to push my luck."

Family members who had waited for the passengers to arrive in Caracas received help from psychologists to deal with anxiety. They were set to fly near to the crash site.