At least 25 dead in Congo plane crash
At least 25 people were killed when a cargo plane crashed in Congo’s capital seconds after take-off.
The aircraft cut a path of destruction through a poor neighbourhood of Kinshasa and slammed into three homes.
Yesterday’s crash highlighted the dangers of flying in Congo, which has experienced more fatal air crashes than any other African country since 1945, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
The turboprop belonged to the Congolese company Africa One, which has been barred from flying in the European Union because of safety concerns.
It was not immediately known what caused the Antonov 26 to go down.
Citing police reports, United Nations peacekeeping spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux said 25 people were killed and two survived – a mechanic and a flight attendant, who was in a critical condition.
It was not immediately clear if all 25 dead had been on board the plane. Transport minister Remy Kuseyo said at least three people on the ground were killed.
The Congolese Red Cross said it removed 22 bodies from the area, and took 22 injured people to the hospital.
Police said that amid the wreckage it was difficult to determine who was on board the plane and who was not.
Three Russians were among the dead: the pilot, co-pilot and a flight engineer, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
One of the plane’s propellers broke off during take-off, and one of its wings was sheared off as it hit a bank of trees, the ministry said.
That account was echoed by several witnesses at the scene, who said the aircraft appeared to be missing a propeller before it crashed.
“The plane clipped several treetops and hit the roofs of three houses, crashing on to its back with its tyres in the air,” said Japhet Kiwa, who lives in the impoverished neighbourhood of Kingasani, a few kilometres (miles) away from Kinshasa’s Ndili International Airport. “There was a huge explosion.”
The blast set palm trees ablaze and completely tore apart three single-storey homes set between two dirt roads.
Little was left, except two detached wheels on the roof of a house, ripped strips of the plane’s riveted exterior, and what appeared to be part of an engine. A large bent propeller stuck out of the earth, surrounded by grey concrete blocks, ripped clothes and other debris.
Smoke filled the sky for hours as firefighters struggled to douse the flames amid a chaotic crowd of shouting onlookers, including wailing friends and relatives of the victims.
Red Cross staff worked among the debris, hauling unrecognisable charred bodies out of the rubble in blue plastic sacks, which were loaded into ambulances and taken to a hospital in Kinshasa.
Laurent Kongolo said he and several other people pulled a woman, burned from head to toe, out of the burning wreckage of one of the homes that had been hit. “She was between life and death,” he said. “It was horrible.”
UN-funded Radio Okapi said the aircraft was headed to Tshikapa in the central province of Kasai Occidental.
Civil aviation chief Alphonse Ilunga said the plane’s flight manifest indicated 16 people on board, but an unknown number of others boarded before take-off – a common occurrence in Congo, where years of war that ended in 2002 have led to countless crashes.
Cargo planes in Congo are often flown by experienced pilots from former Soviet states, but the aircraft are often old and poorly-maintained. Most of the accidents have been blamed on lax safety regulations and repeatedly overloaded aircraft.
One of the worst air accidents in Congo’s history took place in 1996, when an Antonov 32 turboprop crashed seconds after take-off from Kinshasa’s airport, ploughing into a crowded open-air market and killing about 300 people.
An Associated Press survey of air accidents in Congo from 1996 found 20 fatal crashes.
The government has tried grounding airlines, with little impact.
In August, the government suspended the licences of a number of private local airlines and suspended the national director of civil aviation after an Antonov 12 carrying three tons over the recommended capacity crashed in the eastern region of Katanga, killing 14 people.
In September 2005, the government briefly grounded 33 airlines, pulling their operating licences following an earlier rash of plane accidents in the Central African country.
