Russian cargo plane crashes in Africa
An Ilyushin-76 cargo plane loaded with 50 tons of fish fillets crashed into Lake Victoria shortly after takeoff from Tanzania’s Mwanza Airport Thursday, according to news reports. All eight crew members were killed. The cause of the crash is unknown.
The huge Russian-built cargo plane was operated by Airline Transport Inc. of Moldova. It was headed to Osijek, Croatia with a scheduled stop in Khartoum, Sudan.
A week earlier, a cargo plane chartered by Ethiopian Airlines crashed into Lake Victoria during a landing attempt at Uganda’s Entebbe airport. The pilot and crew sustained injuries but survived.