Plane carrying Ugandan military officers crash lands, no deaths reported

A plane carrying four Ugandan military officers and three foreigners on Monday burst into flames shortly after crash landing in the northwestern Ugandan border district of Arua, local media reported. Daily Monitor reported that the plane identified by anonymous security sources as an Antonov An-2 nosedived shortly after take- off from Arua Airfield en-route to Nzara airfield in South Sudan "Only three of the seven plane occupants, four Uganda People's Defense Force officers and 3 foreign nationals, sustained minor injuries. One of the white men, believed to be an American citizen, was piloting the plane when it came down Monday afternoon," the paper said. State owned New Vision daily quoted an eye witness saying two foreigners were rushed to Arua referral hospital. It said the number of people who were on board is not known but there was no death reported. Witnesses quoted by the Daily Monitor said the plane failed to gain altitude after take-off. It hit a tree during the fall and crash-landed on two huts in Ayivuni Sub-county before exploding into flames. Uganda Air Force spokesman Cpt. Tabaro Kiconco confirmed the accident but said the ill-fated plane does not belong to the Ugandan military. According to Daily Monitor preliminary reports suggest the plane was hired by an American Company and flying in on a yet undefined business. The Ugandan military and their American counterparts are in parts of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo hunting for a notorious Ugandan rebel group Lord's Resistance Army.