A plane carrying 112 passengers has crashed on its way from Congo’s capital to a northeastern city on Friday, the latest of several crashes that have plagued the country’s largest airline Hewa Bora Airways.
Stavros Papaioannou, the chairperson and chief executive of Hewa Bora Airways, said at least 53 of the plane’s 112 passengers had survived Friday afternoon’s crash. Congo’s government spokesperson said there were at least 40 survivors.
Papaioannou said the plane left the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, and was headed northeast to Kisangani.
“I confirm the crash of one of our planes,” he said. “I don’t yet have all the details but it’s sure that some of the people died.”
Sabiti Mwamba, the director of the Congolese Aviation Authority, said the plane likely went down due to bad weather.
“The crash was due to the bad weather at the moment when the plane was landing,” Mwamba said.
Government spokesperson Lambert Mende said the plane went down a few metres from the Kisangani airport.
“It was due to the thunder,” he said. “We have already helped take out at least 40 survivors and the rescue operation is ongoing.”
Hewa Bora, which means “Fresh Air” in Swahili, has a history of crashes.
In April 2008, one of their DC-9s rammed into a bustling market after failing to lift off from Goma’s airport, killing at least 40 people, most of them on the ground.
A few months later in September, a Hewa Bora plane carrying 17 people went down in inclement weather killing all on board. — Sapa-AP, AFP