A Ugandan military helicopter crashed and caught fire at the primary global airport in Somalias capital, Mogadishu, killing five individuals on board.The pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer endured with serious injuries and extreme burns, Ugandan military representative Maj Gen Felix Kulaigye said, including that an examination into the reason for the crash was under way.We heard the blast and saw smoke and flames over a helicopter.
The smoke entirely covered the helicopter, Farah Abdulle, among the staff at the airport, told Reuters news agency.Somalias state-run news agency reported that the fire was rapidly contained by the emergency situation services at the Aden Adde International Airport.Ugandan soldiers are part of an 11,000-strong African Union (AU) force helping the federal government fight the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which has been waging a ruthless insurgency in Somalia for more than 2 decades.The helicopter that crashed had been conducting a routine combat escort objective, Maj Gen Kulaigye stated, without giving additional details.The head of the Somali Civil Aviation Authority, Ahmed Maalim, told the BBC that the helicopter had actually boiled down in the airports military area after flying in from the Balidogle airbase in the Lower Shabelle area, about 90km (56 miles) north-west of Mogadishu.The crash delayed the departure of a Turkish Airlines traveler plane, however domestic flights continued to operate normally.Source: BBC-- Agencies