Terror in plane as passengers get sucked out
May 11 2003 at 10:41AM
By Sapa-AP
By Eddy Isango
Kinshasa - Some survived by clutching onto military vehicles, others to ladders, but tearing winds and a pressure drop swept scores of people from the open door of an aircraft flying over the Democratic Republic of Congo's jungles, survivors said on Saturday.
Lieutenant Ilunga Mambaza said he clung to a truck, buried in cartons, when the cargo-bay door of a Russian-built aircraft carrying Congolese police and soldiers, and their wives and children, opened late on Thursday.
"When the back door opened, I fell down and lots of boxes covered me," Mambaza, a policeman, said.
"Lots of my colleagues were sucked out by the wind. I don't know how many, because I fainted," said Mambaza, who estimated that about 350 passengers were aboard the cargo plane.
The flight crew returned the plane to Kinshasa after it was stricken about 45 minutes into the flight. Only about 100 returned safely, Mambaza said. Confusion over the death toll persists.
Congolese authorities were trying to verify how many people died after the Ilyushin 76 lost a door at 10 000m in the air over the region near the city of Mbuji-Mayi, en route to the south-eastern city of Lubumbashi.
Two officials at the international airport said that 129 people were feared dead. A third official estimated the casualties were about half that, saying the exact figure might be difficult to determine because of an incomplete manifest.