The search for a South African-registered aircraft that has gone missing in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) had not yielded any results by Saturday evening.
World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Peter Smeddon said a search for the plane would continue on Sunday morning.
The Cessna Caravan light plane was chartered by the WFP and had taken off on Friday morning from Goma in the eastern DRC, flying to Bunia.
Contact with the plane carrying two crew members and one passenger was subsequently lost. The search for the missing plane is being coordinated by the United Nations mission in the DRC.
Phindiwe Gwebu, spokesperson for the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), said the authority has also been notified of the search for the missing plane.
The plane went missing only a day after captains Andre Nel and Charles Greyvenstein died when the South African plane they were flying crashed on approach to Amisi in the DRC. Six Congolese, two air crew and four passengers were also killed in the crash.
Gwebu said the CAA was still waiting on Saturday for permission from the Congolese authorities to travel to the country and investigate the crash.
”They have not got back to us, so our officials are still here in South Africa,” said Gwebu.
The Pretoria News on Saturday quoted unnamed sources as saying the possibility that the plane was shot down was being investigated.
A spokesperson for the owners of the plane confirmed that they heard the rumour but said it was difficult to determine exactly what happened.
On Friday, the governor of the Maniema region, Koloso Sumaili, described what happened. ”The plane slammed into the runway, the wings smashed and the entire aircraft caught fire,” he said.
The pilots were flying cargo from Goma to Lubutu under contract for the Congolese Peace Airlines Company. — Sapa