A plane chartered by Angola's UNITA rebel movement crashed in a remote part of southern Angola, killing at least 136 people, the rebels said Wednesday.
Six people survived, including one of five crew members on the American-made Electra aircraft owned by Trans Service Airlift, a private air charter company based in Zaire, the group said.UNITA said in a statement issued in Lisbon that the plane crashed two minutes after takeoff Monday from the airport in Jamba, the rebels' former headquarters.
The statement did not list the destination or where the survivors were taken.
Earlier reports from Zairian transport officials and state-run television and radio had said the crash occurred in northern Angola and that the plane was carrying diamond miners from the Zairian capital of Kinshasa. Those reports said there were 139 dead and five survivors and that the survivors has been taken to Kinshasa for treatment.
UNITA said the passengers were Angolan civilians being moved out of Jamba as part of UNITA efforts to relocate families that took refuge in the rebel stronghold during the 20-year civil war in Angola, a former Portuguese colony in southwestern Africa.