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4 dead after cargo plane crashes in Kenya capital

A pile of mild stimulant drug Khat llies beside the wreckage of a Fokker 50 cargo plane after it crashed into a building on take-off at Kenyatta International Airport, in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. According to a police official said Joseph Ngisa, the airport's head of police investigations, four people aboard the plane were killed when their cargo plane crashed, transporting the mild stimulant drug known as Khat to the Somali capital of Mogadishu. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)
A pile of mild stimulant drug Khat llies beside the wreckage of a Fokker 50 cargo plane after it crashed into a building on take-off at Kenyatta International Airport, in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. According to a police official said Joseph Ngisa, the airport's head of police investigations, four people aboard the plane were killed when their cargo plane crashed, transporting the mild stimulant drug known as Khat to the Somali capital of Mogadishu. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi) A pile of mild stimulant drug Khat llies beside the wreckage of a Fokker 50 cargo plane after it crashed into a building on take-off at Kenyatta International Airport, in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. According to a police official said Joseph Ngisa, the airport's head of police investigations, four people aboard the plane were killed when their cargo plane crashed, transporting the mild stimulant drug known as Khat to the Somali capital of Mogadishu. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Four people were killed when a cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff at the international airport in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, a police official said Wednesday.

The Fokker 50 aircraft transporting the mild stimulant known as Khat to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, crashed into a residential building after taking off from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport early Wednesday, said Joseph Ngisa, the airport’s head of police investigations.

Preliminary investigations found the plane was flying low after takeoff and might have hit an electrical pole before crashing in the Embakasi area of the city, Ngisa said.

No other details were immediately available on the possible cause of the crash.

The Kenya National Disaster Operation Center said on Twitter that all the victims were male, and they included the flight engineer as well the pilot and two crew members.