Six Dead in Angolan Plane Crash

An Angolan plane crashed on landing at an airport in the north of the country today, killing at least six people.

The Boeing 737 plane carrying 78 people was landing at an airport in M'banza Congo, a town about 180 miles north of the capital, Luanda, according to state news agency Angop.

The plane landed halfway down the runway and bounced out of control before crashing into a house, the report said. The injured were taken to a hospital in the nearest city, Zaire.

Officials could not immediately confirm that the accident had happened.

The crash came as the European Union said it was adding the Angolan flag-carrier, called TAAG, to its revised international blacklist.

The European commission, the EU's executive body, also banned all Indonesian airlines and several from Russia, Ukraine from flying to the EU to because of safety concerns.

"Once more, the EU blacklist will prove to be an essential tool not only to prevent unsafe airlines from flying to Europe and to inform passengers traveling worldwide but also to make sure that airlines and civil aviation authorities take appropriate actions to improve safety," said Jacques Barrot, commission vice president in charge of transport.

Before the latest announcement, the EU had barred 91 airlines - including 74 from Africa - from entering its air space.

Indonesian airlines have been hit by a string of accidents this year. On New Year's Day, an Indonesian jetliner plunged into the sea from 33,000 feet, killing all 102 people on board.

Weeks later, another plane's fuselage split in half after a hard landing, and in March, a Boeing 737 careered off a runway and burst into flames, leaving 21 dead.