{{A Libyan air force medical plane crashed south of Tunis early on Friday, killing all 11 people on board, Tunisian officials said. }} <\/p>\n
The aircraft crashed in a field on the edge of the village of Nianou, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the capital, but managed to avoid any houses, local media reported.<\/p>\n
The Libyan flag was still visible on the tailplane amid the charred wreckage of the aircraft. “The plane crashed at 1:30 am (0030 GMT)… with 11 people on board — three doctors, two patients and six crew members,” emergency services spokesman Mongi El Kadhi said. <\/p>\n
“The whole plane was completely burnt out. The emergency services went to the crash site and recovered the charred bodies.” <\/p>\n
There was no immediate word on the identities of the two patients on board or why they were being flown to Tunis-Carthage international airport from a military airfield near Tripoli. <\/p>\n
Tunis air traffic control official Sofiene Bejaoui said the aircraft was a Soviet-designed twin-propeller Antonov-26. “According to the air traffic controller who spoke to him last, the pilot’s final message was ‘Engine on fire’,” he said. <\/p>\n
“The plane is a Libyan air force Antonov-26, registration number Five Alpha Delta Oscar Whiskey,” Bejaoui said. <\/p>\n
Nearly 1,400 of the military transport aircraft were built between 1969 and 1986, 420 of them for export, according to the manufacturer’s website. <\/p>\n
At daybreak, teams began searching for the aircraft’s black box flight recorders in a bid to establish the cause of the apparent engine failure. <\/p>\n
-AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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