South Sudan Plane Crash: Cargo Aircraft Goes Down Near Juba Airport, At Least 41 Dead

UPDATE: 5:34 a.m. EST -- A cargo plane crash in South Sudan's capital city of Juba has killed at least 41 people, Reuters reported, citing an official and a witness.

Only one crew member and a child on board the plane survived the crash, presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Reuters.

The plane, which local media say was an Antonov cargo aircraft, crashed near Juba International Airport, soon after it took off.

UPDATE: 4:13 a.m. EST -- At least 23 people have been killed after a cargo plane crashed near Juba International Airport in South Sudan's capital city of Juba, the Associated Press reported on its Twitter feed. Meanwhile, the BBC reported that 40 people had been killed, citing a local radio station.

According to initial reports, the plane was carrying seven passengers and five Russian crew members, and it crashed soon after it took off from the airport. It is not clear how many of those killed were people on the ground or in the plane.

Original story:

A cargo plane crashed in South Sudan Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Juba International Airport in the capital city of Juba, according to reports. The plane was carrying seven passengers and five Russian crew members and only two people survived, local media reported.

Reports suggested that the plane was made by Antonov, a Ukrainian aircraft company. Witnessed said that the wreckage of the plane lay across the White Nile River, Reuters reported.

Radio Miraya, a local radio station, tweeted that the plane was bound for Paloch, a town in the country’s northern Upper Nile state, and it crashed about 800 meters (about half a mile) from the airport.

The incident comes within a week of Russian airliner Kogalymavia’s crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. All the 224 onboard, mostly Russians, were killed and authorities launched an investigation to determine the cause of the crash.