LISBON - Angolan passenger plane crashs, toll unknown-Lusa

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WIRE:11/01/2000 04:59:00 ET Angolan passenger plane crashs, toll unknown-Lusa LISBON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A Russian-built passenger plane has crashed in northern Angola after exploding in the air but it was not known how many people were aboard, Portugal"s Lusa news agency said in Wednesday. Quoting an official of the plane"s operating company, Guicango, Lusa said the accident occured on Tuesday night near the northern Angolan town of Saurimo, some 700 km (450 miles) east of Luanda. The official said the plane "exploded in the air" after taking off from Saurimo en route for Luanda. He gave no further details. Lusa said the accident in the former Portuguese colony, which is sunk in civil war, was confirmed by an official from the Civil Aviation Authority, who also gave no further details. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20001101_547.html

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), November 01, 2000

Answers

CBC

Wed Nov 1, 7:18 am

Plane crash kills 48 in Angola

All 48 people on board a Russian-built passenger plane died when the plane crashed in northern Angola Wednesday.

Portugal's Lusa news agency reported the plane crashed near the Angolan town of Saurimo, about 700 kilometres east of Luanda.

An official from the company that operated the plane, Guicango, said the Antonov 26 was carrying 42 passengers and six crew. The plane exploded in mid-air shortly after take-off, the official said.

It was heading from Saurimo to Luanda.

The crew was Ukrainian and the nationality of the passengers is unclear.

Earlier reports that everyone on board was Russian have been denied by the Russian foreign ministry. It says the plane was made in Russia, but was owned by an Angolan company.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has no embassy in the Angolan capital Luanda and said all information would be channeled through the Russian embassy.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 01, 2000.


Canoe

By CASIMIRO SIONA-- The Associated Press

LUANDA, Angola (AP) -- A Soviet-built plane exploded in a fireball shortly after takeoff in northern Angola, civil aviation officials said Wednesday. Local media reported that all 42 passengers and six crew members were killed.

Angola's Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the crash in a brief statement. The Antonov 26 aircraft burst into flames Tuesday at about 7:30 p.m., minutes after it left the town of Saurimo, 500 miles east of the Angolan capital of Luanda, Angolan Civil Aviation Director Branco Ferreira told state radio RNA.

The cause of the crash in a remote area was not immediately known, but previous air disasters here have been blamed on chronically poor aircraft maintenance or gunfire from the UNITA rebel group.

Saurimo is located in an area of thick jungle in a main diamond-mining region. The area has been a focus of fierce fighting between the army and UNITA, which have been engaged in a civil war since this Southwest African country's 1975 independence from Portugal.

Ferreira did not release any information on the number of casualties, but the Portuguese news agency Lusa said all 48 people on board had died. The identities of the passengers were not immediately available.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said the crew members were Ukrainian, though Ferreira said they were Russian. Their names were not immediately released.

Ferreira said the Angolan army was on its way to the crash site some 30 miles outside Saurimo.

The plane was flying a domestic route before the explosion. It left Luanda on Tuesday morning and was on a refueling stop at Saurimo before heading back to the capital at the end of the day, Ferreira said.

The plane, owned by Angolan company Ancargo, was chartered by an Angolan travel agency, Guicango, according to Lusa.

UNITA -- a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola -- has in the past shot down civilian planes and private planes which they claim are supplying government troops. Also, several crashes in recent years have been blamed on inadequate aircraft maintenance at Luanda airport.

Dozens of Antonov planes made in the former Soviet Union are in Angola, used by private companies to charter passengers and cargo across the vast, southwest African country. Road travel is often impossible due to land mines and skirmishes between the army and rebels.

Last month, the government announced that the 400 or so Russian pilots working in Angola would have to pass new flying tests.

The Angolan Association of Pilots welcomed the decision, saying it would help improve the record of Russian pilots, who are often accused of flying under the influence of alcohol and allowing their aircraft to fall into disrepair.

Also in September, Angolan aviation experts traveled to Moscow to urge Russian authorities to put an end to the exporting of rundown aircraft to Angola.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 01, 2000.


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