A South African-chartered plane that went missing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was found crashed on the mountains bordering Uganda on Sunday.
Phindiwe Gwebu, spokesperson for the South African Civil Aviation Authority said the plane, a Cessna Caravan light plane carrying two crew members and a passenger, was found on the Ugandan side of the Rwenzori Mountains at 8.45am.
”The bodies have been recovered and they have been identified but I cannot give you their names. They were all South Africans,” Gwebu said.
She said the CAA will request for permission from its counterpart in Uganda to investigate the crash.
Contact with the plane, chartered by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), was lost on Friday after it had taken off from Goma in the eastern DRC flying to Bunia.
Earlier on Saturday, WFP spokesperson Peter Smerdon said a wreckage was sighted on the mountains’ Margherita peak, the third-highest summit in Africa at 5 109m above sea level.
The plane crashed only a day after pilots 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 has also sought permission to travel to the DRC to investigate the crash but no response has been received from the authorities there.
The Pretoria News on Saturday quoted unnamed sources as saying the possibility that the plane was shot down was being investigated. — Sapa