129 die as door blows open mid-flight

MORE than 120 passengers were sucked out of a transport plane to their deaths when its massive rear cargo door burst open at 33,000 feet over the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The aircraft was carrying up to 200 policemen and their families across war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, on Thursday night.

Airport officials in the capital of the central African nation, Kinshasa, said 129 passengers were sucked out when the rear door, which doubles as a ramp, of the Russian-built Ilyushin 76 burst away from the jet.