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11 killed in military-plane crash

Published:Tuesday | February 12, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Police inspect the wreckage of a crashed Cessna plane at Charleroi airport, Belgium, last Saturday. The small passenger plane crashed at the airport on Saturday morning, killing five people and closing the international hub used by Ryanair and other low-cost carriers for some hours at the start of a holiday week. - ap

CHARLESVILLE (AP):

Eleven bodies were pulled from the wreckage of a military plane that crashed in Liberia, with Guinea's army chief of staff and top military officers among its passengers, officials said yesterday.

The military officers were on their way to attend Liberia's Armed Forces Day celebrations when the plane went down between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. in Charlesville, near Liberia's largest airport and some 45 kilometres (28 miles) south of Monrovia, the capital.

"At 7:09 a.m., air traffic control cleared the flight to land at Roberts International Airport. That was the last known contact from the crew," said a statement released by Liberian airport authorities.

The grief-stricken residents of Charlesville stood with their arms folded in shock and disbelief amid the smoking wreckage as a United Nations truck attempted to pull at the plane's tyre, the only whole remnant from the CASA Aircraft CN-235.