MACHIQUES, Venezuela - Venezuelan investigators picked through the shattered wreckage of a plane that crashed with 160 people on board, trying to determine what caused the engines to fail in the country's deadliest air disaster.

The pilot radioed authorities saying both engines had failed and requested permission for an emergency landing Tuesday shortly before the West Caribbean Airways plane plummeted to the ground, killing all aboard, officials said.

Seats, pillows, and smoldering wreckage were strewn across a pasture dotted with trees among cattle ranches near the border with Colombia. The plane's tail jutted from the ground.

Somber-faced rescue workers collected body parts and pieces of bone that lay near charred trees.

The crash was the deadliest in Venezuelan history, according to the Aviation Safety Network, a nonprofit group that keeps a database of air disasters. It said the death toll surpassed a 1969 crash in Venezuela that killed 155, including 71 victims on the ground.

"I was struck by all of the victims and the massive destruction," rescue worker Jose Pena said.

Search teams recovered one of the jet's flight data and voice recorders, which could give clues to the crash's cause, said Air Force Maj. Javier Perez, the search and rescue chief. He said the cockpit voice recorder had not been found.

Investigators believe the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 fell into a steep descent, plunging about 7,000 feet per minute before slamming into the ground.