By Andrew Heavens
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.
Hours after the crash -- the fourth fatal air accident inSudan in two months -- state media said Sudan's president haddismissed the head of the civil aviation authority.
"The accident happened ... just seconds after it took off.Four of the crew, all of them Russians, were killed," saidAbdel Hafiz Abdel Rahim, spokesman for the CAA.
He said the plane was carrying goods to south Sudan'scapital Juba for Ababeel Aviation, a private cargo company.
Director of Khartoum Airport, General Yousif Ibrahim, toldstate news agency SUNA that a technical problem had occurredshortly after take-off.
A U.N. official, declining to be named, identified theaircraft as a Russian-built Ilyushin Il-76.
Witnesses said the plane appeared to have careered across amajor road, tearing down power lines in its way, and explodedin an open space near an office building.
Wreckage was strewn across a wide area and firefighterspumped water and foam over the remains of the fuselage. "Thereare huge patches of dark engine oil," said one witness.
The crash happened just after 7 a.m. local time (5 a.m.British time), close to the United Nations Khartoumheadquarters, a shopping centre and scores of office blocks.
Surrounding roads that would have normally been filled withrush hour traffic were largely empty due to a public holiday.
There have been worries about the airport's city centrelocation and plans have been drawn up to move it to thecapital's outskirts.
Police and emergency workers cordoned off the area and aReuters cameraman said he had been briefly detained.
Suna reported that President Omar Hassan al-Bashir hadissued a decree dismissing CAA director general Abu BakrJaafar.
Suna said Bashir had also set up a committee to investigatethe recent accidents and had ordered new CAA director generalIbrahim Abdullah Abdel Karim to stop all Antonov and Ilyushinplanes from operating from all Sudanese airports.
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, an Antonov cargo planecrashed in bad weather, killing seven of the eight crew.
(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
