ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A cargo plane attempting to land at an airport in
Ghana's capital crashed Saturday night, slamming into a bus loaded with
passengers on a nearby street, killing all 10 people on board,
emergency responders said.
The crash occurred in Accra near Kotoka
International Airport, which sits near newly built high-rise buildings,
hotels and the country's Defense Ministry. Witnesses said the plane
first smashed through the fence that runs around the airport before
hitting the bus.
Billy Anaglate, spokesman for the Ghana Fire
Service, said that all 10 passengers in the bus were killed on impact.
The plane's four crew members appear to have survived the crash and were
rushed to a local hospital for treatment.
"What happened is that
the Allied (Air) Cargo plane, actually I was told, was traveling from
Nigeria to Ghana. At the landing it was short of the boundary, and it
went off onto the road side. It crashed into a bus that was bound for
Accra," said Anaglate, who was reached by telephone late Saturday.
"...
(The plane) broke the barrier and went onto the road and hit the
vehicle and unfortunately in the vehicle everyone ended up dying. The
poor people were killed."
An official at the airport's control
tower declined to comment when reached Saturday night, saying no one was
available to discuss the crash. Police officials also refused to
immediately discuss the matter, although a press conference was
scheduled to take place later Saturday.
Police and soldiers
quickly cordoned off the neighborhood where the plane crashed. The area
is near to El-Wak Sports Stadium and Hajj Village, where Muslims in the
country stay before they journey to Mecca.
Local television showed
images of the plane lying across a road with its tail damaged as the
flight crew jumped off and received help from emergency responders.
Witnesses
said the plane was labeled as belonging to Allied Air Cargo, a fact
confirmed by Anaglate. The name and symbols on the aircraft matched
those of the Nigerian air freight company based out of Lagos. Telephone
numbers for the company in London, Lagos and the Nigerian city of Port
Harcourt rang unanswered Saturday night.
Ghana, a nation of more
than 25 million in West Africa, has not had a major airplane crash in
recent years. The last air emergency the country had was in June 2006,
when a TAAG Linhas Aereas De Angola flight to Sao Tome hit birds during
takeoff. The plane landed safely and none of the 28 people onboard were
injured.
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