Eight engineers feared dead after plane crash

Eight Australian engineers are feared dead after their private plane crashed in Malawi today en route to a uranium mine site.

Police said the Australian-owned jet crashed in Dowa, 25 miles north-west of the capital, Lilongwe.

“There are no signs of survivors,” said police spokesman Willy Mwaluka.

The engineers were on their way to the site of a planned uranium mine in the Karonga region, 250 miles north of Lilongwe.

Australian company Paladin last month signed a 10-year agreement with the Malawi government to establish the Kayerekera mine, its second in Africa after Namibia.

The project has sparked concern in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, about the environmental impact of the mine.