Cargo plane crashes in Luanda

An Antonov AN-12 cargo plane crashed in a shanty settlement in the Angolan capital Luanda early on Tuesday claiming over 20 lives. Sources in Luanda told IRIN the aircraft owned by a private company, had just taken off with an undisclosed number of passengers and cargo for Lucapa, a diamond-mining area 1,000 km northeast of Luanda, when it reported an emergency and turned back towards the airport. The sources said it crashed and exploded in flames about 4:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) into shanties in the heavily-populated Cazenga district. The accident, which the sources said was being investigated, was also reported by state radio. As rescue workers tried to determine the number of casualties and the cause of the crash, analysts recalled that there had been at least five such crashes involving ageing Soviet-era aircraft in Angola during the past year. The sources said the aircraft had not been operating for the government or the UN, which lost two Hercules transport planes shot down in the central highlands late in December and early January.