Ukrainian civilian plane crashes in Algeria

ALGIERS, Algeria - A Ukrainian civilian cargo plane crashed in the mountains near the far southern desert city of Tamanrasset in the early hours of the morning Saturday, Aug. 30, reported the state news agency.

The Antonov An-12 carrying seven crew members was on its way to Equatorial Guinea when it went down at about 2:40 a.m. about 9 miles south of the airport in a mountainous are after making a technical stop there, the report said.

Local authorities added that the burned bodies of three crew members had been along with debris from the aircraft. The search for the rest of the crew was continuing.

The An-12 is a four-engine turboprop aircraft introduced in the 1950s.

Earlier this month, an Air Algeria flight from Burkina Faso to Algiers crashed in Mali, likely due to bad weather, while in February a military plane flying from Tamanrasset en route to Constantine also went down in the mountains.