DUBAI (Reuters) - A 747-400 Boeing cargo plane operated by United Parcel Service Inc crashed in an air force base near Dubai's airport after takeoff on Friday, the U.S. parcel delivery company said.
The United Arab Emirates civil aviation authority said the bodies of the two crew members on board were recovered.
Officials at Dubai airport, the busiest in the Middle East, were not available to comment but traffic information on its website suggested that flights were not affected by the crash.
The jet was en route to Cologne, Germany, the company said.
Smoke was billowing from the base, a Reuters eyewitness reported. Initially, Al Arabiya television had reported the plane had hit a busy highway, but later reports indicated it did not hit the road.
Al Jazeera television quoted witnesses as saying the plane was ablaze before crashing. State-run Dubai TV said the crash appeared to have been caused by a technical fault.
"I'm at the site of the crash, a deserted area... near the Dubai Al Ain road, not on the road," the station's correspondent said by telephone.
(Reporting by Firouz Sedarat and Erika Solomon in Dubai, James Kelleher in Chicago and Helen Chernikoff in New York; Writing by Reed Stevenson; Editing by Peter Graff)
