A plane crashed on Wednesday near the Democratic Republic of Congo's north-eastern city of Kisangani, killing six crew and four Congolese passengers, local officials said on Thursday. Raymond Sangara, head of the civil aviation authority in eastern Congo, said there had been 12 people on board the Antonov plane, of whom 10 were killed. One Congolese passenger survived, and another was still missing. He said the plane's crew, who were all killed, were Ukrainian. Earlier the mayor of Kisangani, Pierre Bakoyi, had said the crew were Russian.
The officials said the plane crash happened on Wednesday afternoon about 30 km (19 miles) south-east of Kisangani.
"It is too early to say why the plane crashed. We are searching for the black box and we are trying to work out why we had radio silence soon after the plane took off," Sangara said.
He said the plane was also carrying food and soap. The authorities were alerted by villagers who saw the plane crash into trees and catch fire.
Congo's infrastructure is in ruins after a five-year civil war which ended in 2003.
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