SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, October 21, 2009 (AFP) - A Sudanese cargo plane crashed on Wednesday near Sharjah airport in the United Arab Emirates, killing all six crew members, Sharjah civil aviation director Khaled al-Qassimi said.

The plane went down in the desert, just missing a golf course and a densely populated residential area, an AFP correspondent said.

"A Sudanese cargo plane crashed two miles (three kilometers) from the Sharjah airport shortly after takeoff and there were no survivors among the six crew," Sheikh Khaled told AFP, saying the Boeing 707 went down in the desert.

All six crew were Sudanese, Khartoum's consul general, Issam Awad Metwalli, told AFP.

Metwalli said the aircraft, which belonged to Sudanese freight company Azzi, was en route to Khartoum. He said it was carrying 30 tonnes of cargo, well under its 40-ton limit.

There was no indication of what caused the crash, in which the plane was said to have been totally destroyed, but the diplomat said "we have recovered the black boxes and their data will be analysed."

The desert crash site was fortuitous, as it was near a golf course and less than two kilometres from a densely settled residential zone.

An AFP journalist at the scene said all the brush was burnt and the sand blackened in an area of around 100 meters (yards) by 150 meters.

The airport was closed to air traffic after the accident, but reopened early in the evening.

The emirate of Sharjah lies hard by the Gulf federation's trade and leisure hub of Dubai.

Its airport, which was expanded in 2006, is the the third largest in the UAE after those in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and is popular among low-cost passenger lines and air freight companies.

The Sudanese air fleet is outdated, and the government says spare parts are not available for the country's US-made aircraft due to economic sanctions imposed by Washington.

The United States, which has placed Khartoum on a blacklist of countries supporting terrorism, says the sanctions do not prevent the delivery of spare parts for aircraft if they are requested.

Forty-three people died in February 2004 when a Fokker 50 flown by Iranian company Kish Air crashed as it was landing at Sharjah airport.