At least 70 dead in Congo plane crashes

GOMA, Congo (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killedwhen a Congolese airliner taking off from the eastern city ofGoma crashed and burst into flames in a busy market district onTuesday, witnesses and officials said.

Six people -- the two pilots and four passengers, two ofthem children -- survived the crash of the Hewa Bora AirwaysBoeing 727 in Goma, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo'seastern North Kivu province, the local governor said.

The Hewa Bora airliner was taking off from Goma on a flightto the Congolese capital Kinshasa when it came down in theteeming market district of Birere, a warren of single-storeyshops which were crowded at that time of day.

Residents heard a big explosion, which set severalbuildings on fire. A large plume of smoke rose from the crashsite.

"Half of the plane has broken off. There is a fire towardsthe back. People are coming with buckets of water to put outthe fire. The U.N. is here trying to keep back the crowds," awitness at the crash scene said.

North Kivu governor Julien Paluku told Reuters there were79 passengers and six crew on board. "Six people have beensaved, two pilots and four passengers including two children,"he said.

The crash was the latest aviation disaster to hitDemocratic Republic of Congo, a vast country the size ofwestern Europe which has only a few hundred kilometres (miles)of paved roads and one of the world's worst air safety records.

A Congolese Red Cross official said the death toll wasexpected to rise, but the recovery of bodies was made moredifficult by the fires raging on the ground.

At least one building was destroyed by the crash.

Hewa Bora Airways officials were not immediately availablefor comment.

Last week, the European Union added Congo's Hewa BoraAirways to a list of aviation companies banned from flying inthe 27-nation bloc over safety concerns.

There were eight plane crashes in Democratic Republic ofCongo last year, according to the Geneva-based Aircraft CrashesRecord Office (ACRO).

This included one in the capital Kinshasa in which anAntonov 26 plunged into a crowded neighbourhood, killing morethan 50 people.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says theair accident rate in Africa is six times worse than in the restof the world and calls this an "embarrassment".

Aviation safety experts single out Democratic Republic ofCongo, which is still struggling to recover from a devastating1998-2003 war, as one of the worst offenders.

Passengers and cargo are packed onto ageing planes, oftenSoviet-built, which fly to multiple remote destinations acrossthe former Belgian central African colony.

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say onthe top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)

(Additional reporting by Lubunga Bya'Ombe in Kinshasa,William Schomberg in Brussels, writing by Pascal Fletcher andNick Tattersall; editing by Matthew Tostevin)