Kenya: Four feared dead as cargo plane crashes into building

Security personnel stand at the site of the wreckage of a cargo plane that crashed into a commercial building on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, July 2, 2014. PHOTO/Thomas Mukoya/Reuters

A cargo plane crashed into a commercial building in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, shortly after taking off from the city’s main airport on Wednesday and the 4 crew members on board were feared dead, the Kenya Airports Authority said.

Television footage showed the tail and wings of a white plane ripped in half outside a smouldering 2 storey building left mangled by the force of the impact.

The Kenya Airports Authority said on its Twitter feed all the crew members were “feared to have perished”. Kenyan media reported the four crew members were killed.

“A Fokker 50 cargo plane with 4 people on board has this morning crashed at a commercial building in Utawala after taking off from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport,” the authority said on its Twitter feed.

The plane crashed into shops in Nairobi’s Embakasi neighborhood near the airport, where a terminal was gutted by a major fire last year.

The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is east Africa’s busiest airport and acts as vital travel gateway to the region.

Source: Reuters