Crashed plane found in Congo

KINSHASA - An Antonov plane was been found smashed at the bottom of a cliff in eastern Congo and all 26 people on board were presumed dead, a senior aviation official in the vast central African country said.

The Antonov-12 went missing in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday with a Russian pilot, four Ukrainian crew and 21 Congolese passengers on board, Raymond Sangara, head of the civil aviation authority in eastern Congo, told Reuters.

"I saw the plane and it had been completely destroyed after it smashed into the cliff. I don't think anyone could have survived that crash," Sangara said after returning to the provincial capital Goma from a search and rescue mission.

"The place is completely inaccessible so we would have to fly by helicopter to get down and see if there are any survivors," he said.

He said the plane had crashed near a village called Bunyakiri, around 80km southwest of Goma, from where it took off at 0800 GMT on Wednesday (8pm NZT). It had been due to fly to Kindu, some 400km southwest of Goma.

A five-year civil war which ended in 2003 destroyed much of Congo's infrastructure. Planes are often the only way of covering huge distances in a country the size of Western Europe.

Ten people were killed earlier this month when an Antonov plane flown by a Ukrainian crew crashed into trees and caught fire near Congo's northeastern city of Kisangani.

At least 350 people were killed when an Antonov cargo plane crashed into a crowded market in the capital Kinshasa in 1996, while in December 2003 an Antonov-26 crashed into a market near the town of Boende, 600km from Kinshasa.

- REUTERS