A CARGO plane hit a a bus full of passengers after it overshot the runway as it landed at Ghana’s international airport.
The Boeing 727, which had been flying from Nigeria, broke through a perimeter fence and hit a Mercedes van in a nearby street, killing all 10 people inside.
The four crew members survived the crash at 7pm last night at Kotoka airport, in Accra, but were taken to hospital.
Billy Anaglate, spokesman for the Ghana fire service, said: “What happened is that the cargo plane … was travelling from Nigeria to Ghana. At the landing it was short of the boundary, and it went off onto the roadside. It crashed into a bus.
“The plane broke the barrier and went onto the road and hit the vehicle and unfortunately in the vehicle everyone ended up dying. The poor people were killed.”
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John Dramani Mahama, vice-president of Ghana, has ordered an investigation.
A Ghanaian news channel showed images of the plane lying across a road with a damaged tail as the flight crew jumped out of the wreckage.
A doctor at a clinic next to the runway said he heard “a loud bang and screeches” and went outside, where he saw a plume of smoke rising from the plane.
Doreen Owusu Fianko, chief executive of the Ghana Airports Company, said the airport had returned to normal and all flights were on schedule.
Fianko, who addressed reporters at a press conference hours after the accident, said the plane was flying from Lagos, in Nigeria, when it crashed after a failed landing attempt.
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She said: “The aircraft collided with a mini Mercedes van resulting in 10 confirmed fatalities.”
Officials did not say what the plane had been carrying.