A Zimbabwe cargo plane crashed as it took off Saturday from Shanghai"s main international airport, killing three crew members, a government official said. The official Xinhua News Agency cited Shanghai"s municipal information office as saying three people died. A man answering the phone there confirmed the deaths and said one other crew member was seriously injured, with the other three slightly hurt. Xinhua cited health officials as saying two of the seven crew were from the United States and Indonesia, while the nationalities of the remaining staff had not yet been identified. China Central Television said the plane"s tail struck the ground on takeoff, and an airport warehouse also caught fire in the crash. The report showed billowing thick black smoke at the scene, with police officers blocking closer access. A reporter from Shanghai"s Oriental Satellite Television told CCTV the tail of the plane broke in two or three parts, and hundreds of firefighters were spraying fire retardants on the plane. The crash occurred at 7:40 a.m., Xinhua said. The plane, which was headed to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, veered off the runway and burst into flames. The plane was operated by Zimbabwe-based Avient Aviation, Xinhua said.
