Kenyan Cargo Plane Crashes Near Somali Capital; Three Killed
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Three people died when a Fokker F27- 500 cargo aircraft crashed near the Somali capital Mogadishu, Fly540 Logistics Ltd., the plane's operator, said.
A team including Fly540's chief pilot and security manager flew to the country to recover the bodies of the deceased and assess the cause of the accident, the Nairobi-based airline said in an e-mailed statement today.
``Until investigations have been completed it will not be possible to ascertain the cause of the crash, but it seems likely to have been the result of bad weather,'' Fly540 said.
The aircraft was carrying a consignment of khat, a chewable narcotic leaf, from Kenya to Somalia when it crashed, said Anab Shire Mohamed, a seller of the commodity who was waiting for the delivery at the Namber Konton airport near Mogadishu.
``The plane crashed and dropped about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the airport,'' Mohamed said. ``It hit a Nationlink Telecom tower near the airport because there was rain in the area for the past 10 hours.''
Sacks of khat were scattered over the vicinity of the crash, Mohamed added. The leaf is popular in Yemen and the Horn of Africa and is a mainstay of Somalia's economy. Over long distances, khat must be transported by plane as it loses much of its potency within a day of being harvested.
1:40 PM 8/13/2008
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