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Ethiopian military cargo plane crash lands at Mogadishu airport – 4 crew members reportedly killed
An Ethiopian military cargo plane crash landed and burst into flames Friday at Mogadishu airport, killing four crew members, officials with Somali security and African Union forces said.
“It was a military cargo plane and there were six crew on board,” said one security official who asked not to be named.
“Four of them died and two were rescued,” the official said.
He said the aircraft, which crashed shortly before 0700 local time (12:00 a.m. EDT), belonged to the Ethiopian military.
The African Union force in Somalia confirmed on its Twitter feed that the wrecked aircraft belonged to the Ethiopian air force, expressing “heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Ethiopia following the loss of crew members.”
The Ethiopian foreign affairs ministry in Addis Ababa was not immediately able to comment.
Ethiopia sent troops into southwest Somalia in 2011 to join the African Union force in Somalia (ANISOM) to dislodge the Islamist al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab insurgents.
