Chilean rescuers find bodies after air crash

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean rescuers and fishermen found four bodies and aircraft wreckage on Saturday after an air force plane with 21 people aboard lost contact off the remote Juan Fernandez islands, officials said.

Hopes dimmed of finding survivors from Friday's crash, one of the worst air crashes in the country in recent years.

"It seems like a violent accident that didn't leave anyone alive," Maximiliano Larraechea, secretary general of the Chilean air force, told reporters. "But we're still not losing hope and we're going to continue searching in the same way."

Fishermen and rescuers combing the waters around the Pacific islands found the bodies of two men and two women, he added.

The CASA 212 military plane tried twice to land before it went missing as heavy winds and sporadic rains hit the area, the defence minister said.

Among the passengers were five TVN national television staff members, including well-known presenter Felipe Camiroaga, who were planning to film a report about reconstruction on the islands after last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The islands were one of areas worst affected by the quake.

(Reporting by Antonio de la Jara and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Vicki Allen)