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Global

Plane carrying 112 crashes in DR Congo


    KINSHASA (Reuters) - A plane carrying 112 people crashed Friday as it tried to land at Kisangani international airport in Democratic Republic of Congo, Congolese airline Hewa Bora said.

    Separately, government spokesman Lambert Mende said he had been told that rescue services had pulled 40 survivors from the wreckage of the Boeing 727.

    "The pilot tried to land but apparently they didn't touch the runway," Stavros Papaioannou, chief executive of Hewa Bora airline, told Reuters by telephone.

    "I have no details on casualties," he said.

    Hewa Bora is on a European Union list of airlines banned due to security concerns, as are all carriers certified in the central African country which has one of the worst air transport security records in the world.

    (Reporting by Bienvenu-Marie Bakumanya and Jonny Hogg; Tim Hepher in Paris; writing by Mark John; editing by Robert Woodward)