KINSHASA, Congo - A cargo plane crashed in a residential neighborhood near the main airport in Congo's capital on Thursday, plowing into homes and killing at least 19 people, officials said.

Several destroyed houses near a market in Kinshasa's Kingasani neighborhood were ablaze, and smoke filled the sky, according to an Associated Press reporter on the scene.

The An-26 crashed about 10:30 a.m. into a market area of the neighborhood three miles from the airport, and 19 bodies had been recovered so far, said civil aviation chief Alphonse Ilunga.

The plane's flight manifest indicated there were 16 people aboard, but more had boarded before takeoff, Ilunga said. It was not immediately known what caused the crash.

A plane window and pieces of charred metal were visible as firefighters struggled to put out the fire, and a crowd gathered around the site.

A witness reached by phone said the area was full of smoke and it was hard to tell if there had been deaths or injuries. The witness, Papy Kangufu, said the market was full of people when the plane crashed.

Ilunga said the plane had just taken off from the airport en route to central Congo.

Cargo planes in Congo are frequently flown by experienced pilots from former Soviet states but the aircraft are often old, ill-maintained and overcrowded.

Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the plane, which belonged to Congolese carrier Africa 1, had a Russian crew. "According to early reports, all people on board were killed. There are also casualties among people at the market," it said.

U.N.-funded Radio Okapi cited witnesses in the area as saying the plane damaged 10 houses on three streets. The aircraft was headed to Chicapa in the province of Kasai Occidental, the radio said.

Cargo planes in Congo are often flown by experienced pilots from former Soviet states, but the aircraft are often old, ill-maintained and overloaded, and the country is notorious for crashes that are reported each year.

In August, the government suspended the licenses of a number of private local airlines and suspended the national director of civil aviation after an An-12 carrying 3 tons over the recommended capacity crashed in the eastern region of Katanga, killing 14 people.

Some local airline companies operating in Congo flew during back-to-back wars that lasted from 1996 to 2002, when regulations and government controls in the region were even weaker than today.

In 1996, an An-32 turboprop crashed seconds after takeoff from Kinshasa's main airport, skidding across a busy street and plowing into a crowded open-air market. The crash killed at least 300 people, one of the worst air accidents in Congo's history.

Few passable roads traverse Congo after decades of war and corrupt rule, forcing the country's deeply impoverished people to rely on often-unsafe boats and planes for transportation.