Fourteen people died and 20 were injured today when their flight from Italy to Tunisia made an emergency landing in the sea off Sicily after reporting a technical fault.
Palermo's chief magistrate Piero Grasso, in charge of investigating the incident, said five people were missing.
The pilot of the plane, which had 39 people on board, made a distress call to Palermo airport, requesting to make an emergency landing, an official at Italy's civil aviation authority said.
The plane landed about 12 miles (19 kilometres) out at sea shortly afterwards.
Survivors brought to shore at Palermo were seen being helped out of rescue launches, many with bloody faces and ripped clothes, some yelling in pain. The port was milling with ambulances while helicopters buzzed overhead.
The twin-turboprop Tunisair ATR 72 had taken off from Bari in southern Italy, heading for Djerba, Tunisia, police said.