afrol News, 25 October - At least six people have died in a Wednesday morning plane crash in Madagascar's south-west. The light plane crashed shortly after it took off, witnesses confirmed. Two pilots of the plane who were Madagascans died along with four foreign passengers.

"A small plane belonging to a private airline, la SociCtC de Transport ACrien, crashed at about 4:15 am in Toliara ... killing 6 people," Roland Randriamampionona, Minister of Transport and Public Works in Madagascar, said on national radio.

Mr Randriamampionona said already an inquest had been set up to ascertain the actual cause of the early morning crash.

"I went personally to bless those poor bodies extracted from the wreckage of the plane. They were in terrible conditions with serious burns and almost unrecognisable," the director of the Salesian centre of Tulear, south-west of Madagascar's capital Antananarivo, Carmelo Buccieri, told 'MISNA'.

"They were six people, including four Italian businessmen and two Malagasy pilots. One of the Italians however apparently had a Swiss passport", he confirmed.

Mr Buccieri said the perished passengers reportedly arrived in Madagascar last night and had dinner with their mutual friend before taking off their flight this morning. "I was told that they all worked for the Magrama company, which operates in the marble sector", confirmed Mr Buccieri, revealing that that the incident occurred immediately after take-off, at around 4:05a.m. local time.

"I arrived nearly an hour later, but based on testimonies I gathered from the locals and airport officials, the small plane set fire on take-off and turned back to land after around a kilometre and a half", he said.

It could be recalled that an engine failure forged an Air Madagascar plane carrying 200 passengers into making an emergency landing in July this year. However, there was no report of casualty.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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