Tin ore plane crashes in Congo, 13 killed -ministry

KINSHASA, Aug 26 (Reuters) An Antonov plane carrying tin ore crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff in eastern Congo today, killing 13 people on board, but a young man and a baby boy survived, officials and residents said.

The Russian pilot tried to return to Kongolo in Congo's mineral-rich Katanga province after developing engine problems, but the plane crashed short of the runway, Jean-Claude Kapange, the local head of the Interior Ministry's national information agency, told Reuters.

The pilot and two more Russian crew were among the dead, Kapange said.

He said the plane had been on its way to Goma, the main city in North Kivu province, with around 9 tonnes of cassiterite (tin oxide) and other minerals. Goma is a transit point for many mineral exports from eastern Congo.

''A small child and another passenger in his 20s were rescued before the plane caught fire,'' Faustin Lwamba, a resident of Kongolo who helped in the rescue, told Reuters by phone from the town, adding that both were being treated in a local hospital.

He said a search was continuing in the forest to locate the bodies of the pilot and a woman.

Congo's mineral riches were a catalyst in the country's devastating 1998-2003 war, which drew in half a dozen African armies and spawned a host of local rebel groups and ethnic militias, some of whom still terrorise villagers in the east.

Campaigners say mining for cassiterite and other valuable minerals exploits desperately poor local people who work in treacherous mines for low pay and can fuel instability and violence as businessmen and militias vie for control of resources and revenues.

Mineral flights have also sparked safety concerns.

Local authorities suspended cassiterite flights to Goma from another mining area in North Kivu, Walikale, in June due to safety concerns for the planes, which land and take off on a stretch of road while a proper air strip is being built.

Air travel is notoriously dangerous in Africa, where large swathes of airspace are not covered by radar and aging planes suffer from lack of maintenance and spare parts.

The continent accounted for 18.5 per cent of fatal airliner accidents last year, despite having only 3 per cent of global flight departures, according to the Dutch-based Aviation Safety Network (http://aviation-safety.net).

A Congolese air force fighter plane crashed in June during an Independence Day display, just two days after a passenger jet crashed in neighbouring Angola killing at least five people and injuring dozens more.

REUTERS AK BST0024