=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2004/10/14/i= nternational0609EDT0477.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, October 14, 2004 (AP) Cargo plane with seven crew members crashes after take off in eastern Canada (10-14) 03:09 PDT HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) -- A large cargo jet with seven crew members on board crashed into a rock quarry as it took off from Halifax on Thursday. The fate of the crew was not known. The Boeing 747, owned by MK Airlines, was loaded with tractors and seafo= od and crashed at the end of the runway at Halifax International Airport on Canada's east coast, said police Const. Joe Taplin. "The RCMP and emergency firefighters are on site," said airport spokesman Pat Chapman. Witness Peter Lewis was dropping off his wife at the airport and saw two explosions. "As we were approaching we saw what I thought was heat lighting 'cause I told everyone in the car that we've got heat lightning in the sky," he told radio station CJCH. "That was only a quick one followed by a second one that was bigger. And then we seen a very bright orange light, and I mean bright. It took up the whole sky." Chapman and Taplin said seven crew members were on the aircraft but it w= as not known whether they survived. Cab drivers taking passengers to the airport reported that they had been turned back. "All the information that we can get is the airport is closed for the day," said cab company owner Angus McGillivary. "We got a cargo plane down that's taken down the power at the airport." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2004 AP