Port-Au-Prince, Aug 25: A Haitian airliner crashed on takeoff yesterday from the airport in Cap-Haitien, killing the 19 passengers and two crew members onboard, police said. The aircraft operated by tropical airways crashed into a sugar-cane field and caught fire after taking off for the northwestern city of Port-De-Paix.

The 19 passengers aboard were Haitian nationals but the two pilots might have been foreigners, police in Cap-Haitien, the country's second largest city, said. A local radio station said a door on the aircraft had not been shut properly, and opened following takeoff. Tropical Airways operates two kind of propeller aircraft, the Czech manufactured 19-seater let 410 UVP-E, and the Canadian-made Dash-7, which holds 50 passengers.

Cap-Haitien is 260 km north of Port-Au-Prince. Bureau Report