CAIRO, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- All five crew members on a Ukrainian cargo plane were killed on Friday when it caught fire in the airport of the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, a civil aviation source said.

    The Ukraine-bound Antonov 12 cargo plane, which came from Uganda for refueling in the airport on Thursday night, caught fire while preparing to take off, the state MENA news agency quoted Emad Sallam, head of the civil aviation, as saying.

    The airport sustained little damage and the air traffic was not disturbed, it reported.

    According to MENA, Egyptian Minister of Aviation Ahmed Shafiq has arrived at Luxor airport to follow up the developments of the mishap.

    Shafiq, accompanied by a team of experts, said the plane crashed 700 meters away from the runway and that other traffic at the airport has not been affected.

    The accident may have been caused "by a problem in loading the aircraft or a pilot error during the take-off," Shafiq added.

    The high-level technical team is launching an investigation into the accident to prepare an all-out report on the crash, Luxor Supreme Council Chairman Samir Farag told MENA.

    Luxor is a famous tourist attraction, some 500 km south of Cairo.