No survivors from Congo plane crash

All 22 people aboard a Soviet-made plane were killed when it crashed in central Congo, a government spokesman said.

The crash happened just after take-off at the city of Boende, 550 miles north east of the capital, Kinshasa yesterday, Congo government spokesman Vital Kamerhe said.

The plane was an Antonov 26. Mr Kamerhe and other government officials said they did not know whether the aircraft was carrying members of the military or civilians.

Hamadoun Toure, a UN spokesman, said the plane was not one of those belonging to Congo’s UN military mission, which is overseeing cease-fires and peace deals in the central African nation after a five-year war.

The crash came at around 4pm local time, less than two hours before sunset. News of the crash reached the capital only after dark. Mr Kamerhe said the government would send a fact-finding team at daylight today to try to determine the cause of the crash.

The Boende airstrip had no air-traffic control, said Georges Kikuni, a national aviation official in Kinshasa.

The crash comes four days after a boat collision on a west Congo lake killed more than 180 people and left scores more missing.