An Antonov plane crashed near the Angolan capital of Luanda on Wednesday, killing all 40 people aboard and one person on the ground, agencies reported. The plane came down at 1:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), some five minutes after taking off. Although there was no official death toll, a Lusa correspondent counted 41 bodies at the scene of the crash in open country on the outskirts of Luanda.
The bodies, including some women and children, were reportedly badly burned and there appeared to be two Europeans amongst the dead. The Antonov, which was not further identified, had been hired by local transport company Asa Pesada. The accident was the second fatal crash involving a Russian-built plane this month. Forty-eight people, nearly all of them Angolans, were killed on 1 November when an Antonov 26 crashed in flames in northeastern Angola.
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