Six killed in Ghanaian cargo plane crash

..No Ghanaian Casualty
OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Ghanaian-registered Boeing 747 cargo jet crashed and exploded on take off from Halifax airport in eastern Canada on Thursday, killing all seven crew on board, local police and media said.

Police said 20 fire engines were still battling a blaze in the wreckage, part of which ended up in a rock quarry close to the end of the runway. The MK Airlines jet had been heading for Spain with a cargo of fish and lobster.

"Right now we're trying to determine if it got off the runway or if it stayed on the runway before the crash actually took place," a police spokesman told reporters, saying it was highly unlikely any of the crew survived.

An MK Airlines spokesman could not provide any details of the crash.

"We have no details at the moment. All we can confirm is that the plane has crashed," the spokesman told Reuters.

The airport was shut down after the accident and remains closed.

Six killed in Canada 747 crash

ACCRA, Ghana (Reuters) -- Freight company MK Airlines confirmed on Thursday that one of its Ghanaian-registered Boeing 747 cargo planes crashed in Halifax, Canada, killing all six crew members aboard.

"It's a Boeing 747 jumbo. It was only the crew on board, there were six of them and there were no survivors," Wisdom Ametepe, managing director of MK Airlines in Ghana, told Reuters.

"It's too early to say what caused the crash. We have to wait for an investigation," he said.

Ametepe said the crew was from Zimbabwe and Britain. He said MK Airlines usually picked up fish in Canada.

"We haven't had any problems since we've been operating (out of Ghana) since 1994," Ametepe said, when asked about the company's safety record.

Francis Nkansah, senior supervisor at Ghana's Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed MK Airlines had been operating in Ghana since 1994 and had 16 planes registered in the former British colony.