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Title: Forty passengers and crew killed in plane crash in Sri Lanka

Story Filed: Thursday, March 30, 2000 4:29 AM EST

NEW DELHI, March 30 (Itar-Tass) - Forty people, including thirty-six servicemen, were killed in a plane crash near the city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka on Thursday.

The AN-34 plane had been flying from the Jaffna peninsula in the north of Sri Lanka to an Air Force base not far from the capital Colombo. According to reports from the site of the tragedy, all the servicemen on board and four crew have been killed. Engine failure is believed to be one of the causes of the plane crash.

This was a second plane crash involving planes of the AN class which occurred in Sri Lanka over the past seven days. On March 25 a transport plane AN-12 with the Russian crew aboard crashed when it made a landing approach in the area of an international airport in Colombo. The plane leased by a local company had been flying from Bangkok when the tragedy occurred. Five pilots have been killed and two badly injured in the accident.

ere/ezh

Copyright ) 2000, ITAR/TASS News Agency, all rights reserved.

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 30, 2000

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Update: Military Plane Crashes in Sri Lanka

Story Filed: Thursday, March 30, 2000 4:52 AM EST

COLOMBO (March 30) XINHUA - A Sri Lankan military plane with 36 soldiers and four crew members on board crashed Thursday in the north of the country, the Ministry of Defense said.

The ministry said in a statement that the Russian-built Antonov- 26 plane chartered by the air force crashed due to a technical fault south of Anuradhapura, some 200 kilometeres north of Colombo.

The plane, flying from Palaly in the northernmost Jaffna peninsula to Anuradhapura, was hired to transport troops including soldiers wounded in recent fighting with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels who demand a homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east since 1983.

Unconfirmed reports said the crew had informed the Sri Lanka air force flight control tower at Palaly in the northernmost Jaffna of developing engine trouble 10 minutes before the crash.

All on board may have been killed in the crash, military sources said.

Copyright XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 30, 2000.

And a bit more.

Thu Mar 30, 5:44 am

Plane crash in Sri Lanka kills 40

A Russian-built air force plane carrying 36 troops and four crew members crashed Thursday in north-central Sri Lanka. All 40 people aboard the Antonov-26 aircraft were killed.

Air Force officials say the pilot reported engine trouble as the plane was preparing to land. Witnesses say they saw the plane catch fire before it crashed.

The AN-26, which had a Russian crew, was flying to Colombo to bring troops home on leave from battling Tamil rebels.

The Sri Lanka air force leases several planes from a Ukrainian company that provides Russian crews.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), March 30, 2000.