At least 18 Killed in Congo Air Crash

(CNN) -- A passenger jet crashed Tuesday shortly after taking off from the Goma airport in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 18 people and tearing roofs off houses, according to the Interior Ministry.

Original reports had as many as 75 people dead. There was no immediate explanation for the conflicting numbers.

Dozens of people are feared dead after an airliner carrying at least 60 crashed after taking off from Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. At least six survivors were pulled from the wreckage as rescuers fought a fire close to the end of the runway. The airliner belonged to the private airline Hewa Bora and had been en route to the capital Kinshasa. DR Congo has one of the world's poorest air safety records with eight crashes in 2007, Reuters news agency notes

A plane crashed Tuesday shortly after taking off from the Goma airport in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 83 passengers and crew on board, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

The Hewa Bora Airways DC-9 was heading from the city of Goma in the eastern mountains to the central city of Kisangani when it plummeted into a neighborhood near the runway, spokesman Antoine Ghonda said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, has a dismal aviation record. There have been at least 24 plane crashes in the past year, according to the Aviation Safety Network.