At least 22 people died on Thursday when a Boeing 707 cargo plane carrying 25 people crashed and broke up close by a working class district of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, airport and African aviation authorities said.
Police said that Red Cross workers and Bangui’s fire brigade were digging through wreckage and mud in swampland by the Guitangola market district in the southwest of the city, and had recovered a dozen bodies in their search for survivors.
The plane was operated by a company called Prestige Airlines, which is registered in Rwanda and operates out of neighbouring Goma, a town on the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border run by Rwandan-backed DRC rebels.
It had been flying over the Central African Republic (CAR) on its way from the Chadian capital Ndjamena to Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo.
For reasons that remain unclear, it had tried to make an emergency landing at Bangui at around 11:00 am (1000 GMT), aviation sources said.
Part of the fuselage was buried in the swamp, the wings had broken off and twisted metal was scattered everywhere, three kilometres from the runway and just 100 metres from the first shanty homes, an AFP correspondent said. The aircraft’s black box has been found, police said.
Airport sources in Ndjamena said the plane was carrying 25 people — eight crew and 17 passengers, reported to be young people. Hospital sources said 22 people were killed and two were seriously injured, while one escaped unhurt.
They said there were no casualties on the ground. However, a police officer said he was aware of a local resident, a woman, who had been injured.
”This kind of flight is commonly chartered by Chadian traders who want to take goods to Brazzaville,” an observer in N?djamena said. Amid the panic at the crash scene, local people were walking off with sacks of onions which had spilled out of the plane.
The pilot had asked for permission to reroute to Bangui due to ”technical problems” during the morning.
The plane crashed as he tried to make an emergency landing, according to the Agency for Air Traffic and Security in Africa (Asecna) and Bangui airport staff.
Presidential guard troops sealed off the crash site before Red Cross ambulances and the fire brigade moved in. A Bangui airport worker said he had tried to reach the scene just after the plane went down, but was not allowed within 300 metres of it.
”People were crying everywhere. There were thousands of people. I even saw people walking away with bits of the aircraft,” the airport worker said. He and other witnesses said the plane did a turn over the Oubangui river before coming in to land but had lost altitude very fast.
”The pilot cut his four engines. He seemed to be too low,” the airport worker said. Aviation officials said the pilot had apparently succeeded in jettisoning fuel before the crash, avoiding an explosion.
A rescue worker said one injured woman passenger had got out of the smashed carcass of the plane.
”An enquiry has been opened to determine what caused this catastrophe and, for security reasons, people are urged to remain calm and not to crowd at the scene of the accident,” government spokeswoman Gouenebana said.
In Goma, aviation sources said the Prestige Airlines plane was owned by a firm called NewGomair and had been its only aircraft, flying throughout the central African Great Lakes region.
In service for more than 20 years, it had been carrying NewGomair’s chief director when it crashed, the sources said.
Some early reports had said that the aircraft was a Philippine Airlines Boeing 737-Cargo, but the CAR government confirmed that it was a 707 operated by Prestige Airlines and registered in Rwanda under the code 9-XRIS.
Sudan Airways discounted another early report that it was one of their planes. – AFP
