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British transport plane crash-lands at Albanian outpost
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| Plane wreckage burns following the crash of a British military transport plane in Kukes, Albania on Friday | |
One passenger seriously injured
June 11, 1999
Web posted at: 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 GMT)
KUKES, Albania (CNN) -- A British military transport plane crash-landed and burst into flames late Friday while attempting a landing on a dirt airstrip near the northern Albanian town of Kukes.
One of the 12 passengers on board was seriously injured but "the rest are okay," said NATO spokesman Lt. Col. Helge Eriksen. There were no immediate reports of injuries on the ground.
The C-130 Hercules touched down on an airstrip and then apparently tried to take off again. But it slammed into a house near the end of the runway, igniting ammunition that was on board the aircraft.
A massive orange fireball lit up the nighttime sky and repeated explosions jolted the area. A nearby Kosovo refugee camp was evacuated shortly after the crash.
"It could have been a catastrophe if it had landed on this camp," Eriksen said.
Eriksen said he did not know the nationalities of those on board and could not elaborate on the plane's origin.
The airfield is located about 2 miles (3 km) from Kukes, a remote border town that has been flooded with more than 100,000 ethnic Albanian refugees since NATO began airstrikes against Yugoslavia March 24.
The United Arab Emirates, which built the 1,600-meter-long (1,600-yard-long) strip, began shuttling in refugee aid using C-130s last week. But no known night landing on the primitive strip had been attempted.
Dutch, American, British and United Arab Emirates troops sealed off the airfield as those on board the plane were taken to an adjacent refugee camp. The injured passenger was evacuated from the area, Eriksen said.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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RELATED SITES:
Yugoslavia:
• Federal Republic of Yugoslavia official site
• Kesovo and Metohija facts
• Serbia Ministry of Information
• Serbia Now! News
Kosovo:
• Kosova Crisis Center
• Kosovo - from Albanian.com
Military:
• NATO official site
• BosniaLINK - U.S. Dept. of Defense
• U.S. Navy images from Operation Allied Force
• U.K. Ministry of Defence - Kosovo news
• U.K. Royal Air Force - Kosovo news
• Jane's Defence - Kosovo Crisis
Resettlement Agencies Helping Kosovars in U.S.:
• Church World Service
• Episcopal Migration Ministries
• Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
• Iowa Department of Human Services
• International Rescue Committee
• Immigration and Refugee Services of America
• Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
• United States Catholic Conference
Relief:
• World Relief
• Doctors without borders
• U.S. Agency for International Development (Kosovo aid)
• Doctors of the World
• InterAction
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• Kosovo Humanitarian Disaster Forces Hundreds of Thousands from their Homes
• Catholic Relief Services
• Kosovo Relief
• ReliefWeb: Home page
• The Jewish Agency for Israel
• Mercy International
• UNHCR
Media:
• Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
• Independent Yugoslav radio stations B92
• Institute for War and Peace Reporting
• United States Information Agency - Kosovo Crisis
Other:
• Expanded list of related sites on Kosovo
• 1997 view of Kosovo from space - Eurimage
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