CARACAS, Venezuela-A Dutch expedition has salvaged the wreckage of a rare, antique, twin-engine passenger plane that crashed in the Venezuelan jungle in 1937, diplomats said.

The expedition, sponsored by the Dutch Aerospace Museum Aviodome-Schiphol and the Venezuela Air Force, found the wreckage of the Fokker-8 beside an isolated airstrip in a jungle clearing near the Indian village of Uruyen in the southeastern state of Bolivar, 500 miles from Caracas.

The 15-passenger Fokker-8 is the only remaining model of its kind in the world. The Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker made only one prototype and 10 reproductions in 1928, Van Dam said.

The plane, sold to Venezuela in 1937, was probably on an aerial cartography mission when it crashed, said Robert Van Dam defense attache at the Dutch embassy. A preliminary investigation shows that four people may have been aboard at the time of the crash-two pilots and two cartographers. The fate of the passengers could not be immediately determined.