Cargo plane crashes into building in Nairobi, killing 4

USPA News - A cargo plane transporting the drug khat crashed into a commercial building in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Wednesday morning, killing all four people on board and injuring several people on the ground, emergency services said. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

The accident happened just after 4 a.m. local time when the Fokker 50 cargo aircraft, belonging to Kenyan charter airline Skyward International Aviation, crashed into a building in a residential area of the Embakasi division, which consists of the eastern and southeastern suburbs of Nairobi. Rescue workers who rushed to the scene found the wreckage and parts of the building on fire, but the flames were quickly brought under control by firefighters. Parts of the aircraft were still intact and visible in front of the multi-story building. The National Disaster Operation Center said approximately 24 rooms inside the complex were affected by the fuel blaze. All four people who were on board the aircraft were killed in the crash, a local ambulance service said. "The dead in the plane crash include an engineer, a pilot, and two cargo crew," St John Ambulance said, identifying all the victims as male. Two people who were inside the building were injured. The National Disaster Operation Center said the aircraft, which was bound for the Somali capital of Mogadishu, had taken off from Nairobi`s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport shortly before it went down. It said it was carrying a cargo of khat, which is a drug that is popular in parts of Africa and the Middle East, though classified as a dangerous narcotic in some Western countries.