A cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from Khartoum airport today, exploding into a fireball and killing all four crew.
A spokesman for Sudan's civil aviation authority said the plane was carrying goods to the southern town of Juba for Ababeel Aviation, a private cargo company, when it crashed. All four crew aboard the Russian-built Ilyushin Il-76 were Russian.
The plane reportedly blew up into a fireball when it crashed around one kilometer from the airport.
Witnesses at the crash scene said the plane appeared to have careered across a major road and exploded in an open space near an office building.
Wreckage was strewn across a wide area and firefighters were putting out the blaze.
Today's crash was the fourth deadly aviation incident in Sudan in two months. At least 30 people were killed when a passenger plane caught fire at Khartoum airport in early June.
In May southern Sudan's minister of defence and a presidential adviser were among at least 23 people killed in a plane crash in the south. Last week, a Sudanese cargo plane crashed in bad weather, killing seven of the eight crew.