Plane Carrying 48 Crashes in Angola

ByABC News
November 1, 2000, 6:34 AM

L U A N D A, Angola, Nov.1 -- About 48 people are believed tohave been killed when a Russian-built plane exploded and crashed in northeastern Angola, according to diplomats and news agency reports today.

Portugals Lusa news agency said in a report from Luandathat 48 Russians had died in the crash late on Tuesday.

But a Foreign Ministry source in Moscow said no Russiannationals were aboard the plane, which is reported to haveexploded over northern Angola.

According to the latest information, there were no Russians aboard and the crew was Ukrainian. The plane was Russian made, but it belonged to an Angolan company, the source said.

An official of Angolas civil aviation authority said there had been an accident in the north of the countrywhich was being investigated, but said he could not confirm any details.

A spokesman for the local operating company, Guicango, wasquoted by Lusa as saying that an aircraft carrying 42 passengers and six crew exploded in the air on Tuesday night near the northern Angolan town of Saurimo, 450 miles east of Luanda.

The accident occurred about 30 miles from Saurimo,capital of Lunda Sul province in the former Portuguese colony which is sunk in a decades-old civil war.

Rebels Downed Planes in 1999

Angola has seen a string of plane disasters in recent yearsinvolving Russian-built planes which the formerly Marxistgovernment obtained when it was backed by the Soviet Union.

Last year, the UNITA rebel group claimed responsibility forshooting down at least two Russian-built Antonovs. One of them was downed in Lunda Sul province, the scene of the latest catastrophe.

In February last year, two Antonovs crashed two days apart.One plunged into a poor Luandan neighbourhood, killing around 30 people, including 20 on the ground.

Jackie Potgieter, a Pretoria-based regional analyst, toldReuters it was possible that the plane had been shot down by UNITA rebels operating in the area.

He said UNITAs hold on Saurimos rich diamond-miningindustry had been broken by government forces, but that rebel units appeared still to be active in the area and to control some mines.