Ugandan army helicopter crashes at Somalia’s Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu

A Ugandan army helicopter with eight folks on board crashed and caught hearth on the important worldwide airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, a Ugandan military spokesman has informed the BBC.

Three folks escaped with burns however the different 5 had been “but to be accounted for” following the crash on the Aden Adde Worldwide Airport, Maj Gen Felix Kulaigye stated, including that its trigger was nonetheless unclear.

“We heard the blast and noticed smoke and flames over a helicopter. The smoke totally lined the helicopter,” Farah Abdulle, one of many airport workers, informed Reuters information company.

Somalia’s state-run information company reported that the fireplace was rapidly contained by the emergency companies.

Ugandan troops are a part of an 11,000-strong African Union (AU) drive serving to the federal government struggle the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which has been waging a brutal insurgency in Somalia for greater than 20 years.

The pinnacle of the Somali Civil Aviation Authority, Ahmed Maalim, informed 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.

In a press release, the AU mission in Somalia stated the three survivors had been taken to hospital for remedy, whereas operations had been beneath strategy to “retrieve the remaining crew and passengers.

Each AU and Somali officers stated an investigation was beneath strategy to set up the reason for the crash.

It delayed the departure of a Turkish Airways passenger airplane, however home flights have continued to function usually.