LET 410 down in Kamina Town, DRC

[JTrain]

Anybody have any more details about the Karibu Airways LET 410 that went down shortly after takeoff today (Thurs June 21st) in Kamina Town, DRC?

[4HolerPoler]

Here's the latest:

A domestic passenger plane crashed in a swamp in south-east Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, killing at least one person, and officials said nine more passengers were trapped in the wreckage.At least 12 people survived, but all were injured. The passenger confirmed dead was a DRC member of parliament. The Czech-made Let Kunovice L-410 twin-engine propeller aircraft operated by Karibu Airways came down shortly after taking off from Kamina, in Congo's mining province of Katanga, while on a flight to the provincial capital of Lubumbashi. "The plane is upside down in a marsh with the wheels and wings above the surface," Katanga's provincial Interior Minister Dikanga Kazadi told Reuters.

"There are nine people still trapped inside. We do not know their condition." The 12 injured survivors were taken to a local hospital. They included two DRC doctors working for the World Health Organisation and the ministry of health, UN officials said. The dead passenger was identified as Mbuyu Mibanga, a deputy of DRC's National Assembly. The nationalities of the other passengers and crew were not immediately known.

The accident was the latest in a series of air crashes in the past few years in the vast, former Belgian colony, which has few paved roads and is considered one of the most dangerous nations in the world for civilian air travel. Aging aircraft mostly made in the former Soviet bloc are widely used to carry passengers and cargo between provinces. Last year, the European Union banned all but one of the 51 carriers operating in the DRC from flying in Europe. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called the air safety records of several African countries, including Congo, an "embarrassment" for the industry. After the criticism, the DRC government has tried to improve air safety by grounding some airlines and regulating the amount of cargo that can be carried.

[sky waiter]

Does anyone know if this was a UVP or an E20. Second one in a while to go down....

[JTrain]

I've heard there were 24 passengers on the airplane, and a LET is supposed to hold what - 14 or 18 passengers.

[chopperkie]

L410 17 Pax and the UVP 19 Pax

[sky waiter]

Not really, uvp can hld 17, the uvp E20 can hold 17 to 19 depending on wheteher you have a toilet installed or not. but your useful oad at zero fuel weight is 1710. and thats with minimu amounts of fuel, so you can really only take about 15 adults with a decent range....

26 people that is a joke must have been t least 1500kg overweight

[Speedbreak]

9Q-CEU, Kamina Ville!

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4767/let4109qceu2mi9.jpg

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6196/let4109qceu1gc1.jpg

[verreaux eagle]

:ouch:Any idea what the cause was? Possible engine EFATO? My experience with the Let is that even correctly loaded the single engine performance is marginal if at all! Overloaded it would be a flying coffin!:rolleyes:

[F510]

9Q-CEU is a Let 410 UVP with 17 seats, used to be operated in Madagascar under reg 5R-MGO by Madagascar Flying Services. It was sold in 2004 end ferried to DRC.

F510

[JTrain]

:ouch:Any idea what the cause was? Possible engine EFATO? My experience with the Let is that even correctly loaded the single engine performance is marginal if at all! Overloaded it would be a flying coffin!:rolleyes:

----

I believe it was overloading which caused the crash.

I've heard as many as 24 people were on the aircraft, plus an inordinant amount of cargo.

A couple saving graces: Fortunately they took of the west-facing runway from Kamina Town, which leads to a swamp area and then open space. Had they gone off the east runway, the crash would've been right in the town itself. Secondly, there was a hospital nearby, which helped saved a lot of passengers who had internal bleeding injuries. Without the presence of that hospitals and its doctors, casualties could have been a lot worse.

jt

[Busher]

9Q-CEU is a Let 410 UVP with 17 seats, used to be operated in Madagascar under reg 5R-MGO by Madagascar Flying Services. It was sold in 2004 end ferried to DRC.

F510 is right in his statement. This aircraft was operated by Free Airlines N'Dolo. She crashed once in Southern Sudan in 2005. All aircraft documents were faked e.g. engines & props. She was a straight LET 410 UVP.