Four of the cargo plane’s crew were slightly hurt and taken to hospital, according to a spokesman for Brussels Airport.
The large Boeing 747 had attempted to take off for a flight to Bahrain but suffered an unknown problem and crashed at the end of the runway, near railway tracks and some houses.
On impact it split cleanly in two around ten yards behind the cockpit. "The plane is very seriously damaged", spokesman Jan Van der Cruysse said, with some understatement.
Mercifully the plane did not catch fire, although firefighters coated the wings with a special fire-retardant foam as a precaution, as its fuel tanks were still filled with highly flammable jet fuel.
The plane is owned by Kalitta Air, a cargo carrier based at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Michigan, and makes regular flights from Brussels, officials said.
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