Cargo plane explodes in Khartoum kills 4 crew

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A cargo plane crashed shortly aftertaking off from Khartoum airport on Monday, exploding into afireball and killing all four crew, witnesses and officialssaid.

It was the fourth fatal air accident in Sudan in twomonths.

"The accident happened less than a kilometre (half a mile)from the airport, just seconds after it took off. Four of thecrew, all of them Russians, were killed," said Abdel HafizAbdel Rahim, spokesman for Sudan's civil aviation authority.

He said the plane was carrying goods to the southern townof Juba for Ababeel Aviation, a private cargo company.

"The plane was taking off from the airport ... It blew upinto a fireball," said a U.N. official, declining to be named.He identified the aircraft as a Russian-built Ilyushin Il-76.

Witnesses at the crash scene said the plane appeared tohave careered across a major road and exploded in an open spacenear an office building.

Wreckage was strewn across a wide area and firefighterswere putting out the blaze, they said. "There are huge patchesof dark engine oil," said one witness.

Police and emergency workers cordoned off the area and aReuters cameraman said he had been briefly detained.

Monday's crash was the fourth deadly aviation incident inSudan in two months. At least 30 people were killed when apassenger plane caught fire at Khartoum airport in early June.

In May southern Sudan's minister of defence and apresidential adviser were among at least 23 people killed in aplane crash in the south. On Friday, a Sudanese cargo planecrashed in bad weather, killing seven of the eight crew.

(Editing by Dominic Evans)