A small cargo plane crashed after hitting a communication mast near an airstrip near the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing all three crew members, officials and witnesses said.
The plane was carrying Khat, a semi-narcotic leafs consumed in Somalia, for dealers in Mogadishu.
"It was foggy and the plane circled a number of times before it hit a telecommunication tower near the airstrip and crashed three kilometres away. When we got to the site we found all three crew member dead," Bashir Hassan, an aviation official told Xinhua by phone.
Two of the crew were Kenyan nationals and the third is thought to be an Arab national. It was not immediately clear for the airport officials which Arab country the third crew member came from.
Witnesses said the plane crashed into a tree and disintegrated into pieces and burned after it hit the mast belonging to Nation Link telephone company, one of the telecommunications companies operating in Mogadishu.
Kenya's Fly 540 company has confirmed one of its planes crashed near Mogadishu early Wednesday, killing all three occupants on board due to bad weather.
The airport authorizes told local media that the bodies of the crew will be flown back to Nairobi where the plane came from.
Daily consignment of thousands of dollars worth of Khat is brought to Mogadishu from the neighbouring Kenya by small aircrafts that land in airstrip around the capital and in other parts of the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.