Eleven people were killed on Monday when an Antonov-26 freight aircraft struck a tree near Isiro airport in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), aviation officials said.
The death toll of 11, issued by the national aviation authority (RVA), was higher than a provisional figure of seven given by local officials and the United Nations-funded Okapi radio.
”The accident has caused 11 deaths — seven passengers, three Russian crew members and an escort, a member of the company that owned the aircraft,” RVA director Emmanuel Mokoko said.
”Everybody on board is dead: the three Congolese passengers and the crew, who were probably Russian or Ukrainian,” the Deputy Governor of Orientale province, Autsai Asenga Medard, confirmed by telephone from Kisangani, the main town.
Medard said: ”The weather was very bad at Isiro and that may be one of the reasons for the accident. The aircraft caught fire after the crash. Rescue teams are at the site and have retrieved burned bodies.”
The local administrator added that, according to preliminary findings, the plane appeared to have struck a tree as it was coming in to land at about 6.30am GMT, ”probably because of the lack of visibility”.
It had come from Beni, a town in the eastern Nord-Kivu province.
The radio report said the plane crashed about 1 500m short of the runway where it had been about to land. — Sapa-AFP