People gather around as firefighters try to extinguish flames among the debris of an Antanov 32 aircraft of the Sri Lanka Air Force which crashed into a rubber plantation at Athurugiriya, 12km from Colombo yesterday.
A Sri Lankan military transport aircraft crashed near the capital Colombo yesterday killing four people on board and injuring another crew member, police said.
The Antonov AN-32 aircraft slammed into a rubber plantation in the suburb of Athurugiriya in bad weather and burst into flames, police spokesman Ajith Rohana said.
“Four people onboard have been killed and the fifth crew member survived with severe burns,” Rohana said.
Air force sources said the plane had taken off from the main international airport outside Colombo and headed to a nearby domestic air base when pilots reported poor visibility.
There were no casualties on the ground, but at least one house lost part of its roof as the aircraft crashed.
Civil aviation chief H M Nimalasiri said it was too early to establish the cause of the incident, but investigators were heading to the crash site.
The Sri Lankan air force has lost four other Antonov AN-32 type aircraft since 1995.
