A UGANDAN army helicopter with eight individuals on board has crashed on the most important worldwide airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, an aviation official has advised the BBC.
The state-run information company reported {that a} hearth broke out after the helicopter crashed on the Aden Adde Worldwide Airport, but it surely had been rapidly contained by the emergency providers. Video footage confirmed plumes of smoke rising from the airport.
“We heard the blast and noticed smoke and flames over a helicopter. The smoke solely lined the helicopter,” Farah Abdulle, one of many airport employees, advised Reuters information company.
The reason for the crash and casualty figures are unclear.
The pinnacle of the Somali Civil Aviation Authority, Ahmed Maalim, advised the BBC that the helicopter had come down within the airport’s army part after flying in from the Balidogle airbase within the Decrease Shabelle area, about 90km (56 miles) north-west of Mogadishu.
He mentioned that an investigation was below option to set up the reason for the crash.
Ugandan troops are a part of an 11,000-strong African Union (AU) pressure serving to the federal government combat the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which has been waging a brutal insurgency in Somalia for greater than 20 years.
The crash delayed the departure of a Turkish Airways passenger airplane, however home flights continued to function usually.
—BBC
