WORLD : 11 Feared Dead in Austrian Crash

VIENNA — A plane carrying 11 people, including a government minister, crashed into a lake today near the Swiss border, and all aboard were presumed dead, officials said.

The plane, a nine-seat Aerocommander AC-90 from Austria’s Rheinthalflug airline, was preparing to land at Altenrhein just over the border when it went down, said airline spokeswoman Renatte Moser. “We have to fear that there are dead,” she told the Associated Press. Moser said the nine passengers included Austria’s social affairs minister, Alfred Dallinger, 62. There were two crew members on board. A previously unknown group calling itself the Austrian People’s Army claimed responsibility for the crash in a telephone call to the West German news agency DPA. The Austria Press Agency said police were investigating the call. The caller did not say why the group would want to bring down the plane.