11 feared dead in Uganda plane crash

An Antonov cargo plane en route to Somalia with 11 people on board including three Burundian military officers crashed into Lake Victoria after take-off from Uganda's main airport on Monday, officials said.

"It plunged into the lake and went down deep," said an aviation source, who feared all had been killed.

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Ignatius Igundura said there were four crew members and seven others on board the plane when it crashed. "The rescue is on right now," he told Reuters.

An army official said the chartered plane was going to the Somali capital Mogadishu, carrying a brigadier general, a colonel and a captain from Burundi as well as one Ugandan army soldier, the crew, the civilians and some food.

Uganda and Burundi both supply troops to an African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

There were no details on what had caused the crash.

Africa's air accident rate is six times worse than the rest of the world, according to the International Air Transport Association. (Reuters)