AN26 crashes in DR Congo killing all aboard

[LatviaCalling]

The following from BBC:
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An aeroplane has crashed in northern Democratic Republic of Congo killing all 22 passengers on board, according to the authorities.

It crashed shortly after taking off from the town of Boende, located north-east of the capital Kinshasa, the information ministry said.

It is not known how many crew were on board the Antonov-26 aircraft.

Government experts will be sent to the accident site to search for the plane's black box on Sunday.

"Today, at 1600 local time, right after take-off from Boende, there was a problem and the plane crashed, killing all 22 passengers and the staff on board," Information Minister Vital Kamerhe said.

He did not know who was on board the plane or its owner.

The Boende airstrip has no air traffic control, officials said.

[RASTAMIKE]

no surprise, this country is prone to air disasters...not only russians, look at the old Vickers Viscount, still flying...but just

[RASTAMIKE]

Accident d'avion de Boende
KINSHASA - L'accident d'un appareil de type Antonov-26, le 29 novembre à Boende (province de l'Equateur - nord), a fait 33 morts, selon un nouveau bilan officiel rendu public lundi par le porte-parole du gouvernement, ministre de la presse et de l'information, Vital Kamerhe.

Un premier bilan faisait état de 22 victimes parmi les passagers et indiquait que tous les membres de l'équipage étaient morts, sans préciser leur nombre.

Le communiqué du gouvernement indique que l'avion qui n'a pas pu décoller, a fini sa course dans un petit marché installé en bout de piste, faisant 13 victimes parmi les marchands et clients.

Le nouveau bilan additionne donc les six membres de l'équipage, tous militaires des Forces armées congolaises, 14 passagers dont la qualité n'est pas précisée ainsi que 13 victimes du marché.

Parmi les 18 passagers embarqués il y a 4 rescapés, dont deux femmes, un militaire et un adolescent, selon le communiqué.

Selon le rapport du chef d'escale de Boende, le bi-moteur Antonov, appartenant aux Forces aériennes congolaises, avait tenté, sans succès un premier décollage et c'est lors de la seconde tentative que l'appareil dont un pneu venait de crever n'a pu ni décoller ni freiner, et a fini sa course dans un petit marché", précise le communiqué.

On ignore les motifs de la présence à bord d'un appareil militaire de deux femmes et de l'adolescent rescapés.

A plusieurs reprises les autorités de l'aéronautique civile de la RDC ont dénoncé la pratique qui consiste à embarquer, dans des appareils militaires, et sans contrôle, soit des familles de militaires, soit des civils "passagers" clandestins" qui ont acquitté un droit de passage totalement irrégulier.

Lors de l'accident, en mai, entre Kinshasa et Lubumbashi d'un Illyouchine le nombre de ces passagers clandestins, tombés dans le vide par la chute de la rampe d'accès ventrale, n'avait jamais pu être chiffré.

(©AFP / 01 décembre 2003 19h48)

[penash]

Plane crash toll rises to 33
By Eddy Isango in Kinshasa, Congo
December 2, 2003

THE Congo Government has raised the death toll from a plane crash in central Congo to 33, including 13 people on the ground who were killed when the military plane skidded into a crowded market at the end of a runway.

The Government had previously reported 22 deaths in the crash which occurred late Saturday in Boende, 750km north-east of the capital Kinshasa.

With no phone lines, and delays in getting investigation teams to the site, details of the crash and news of the increased death toll reached the capital only late yesterday.

After days of silence about the cause, authorities said that a tyre burst on the Antonov 26 plane just as it was taking off, leaving the pilot unable either to become airborne or brake.

"It hit at the end of the runway, after two attempts to stop the plane," said Vital Kamerhe, a government spokesman in Kinshasa. "The plane stayed on its runaway course before coming to ground in a little market at the end of the strip."

The crash killed all six members of the military crew and fourteen of the 18 passengers aboard the plane, as well as 13 people in the market, authorities said.

The passengers included women and at least one teen-ager, indicating that some of those aboard were civilians.

Congo, a nation the size of Western Europe, has only a few hundred kilometres of paved roads. People with the means to travel long distances generally do so by plane and by boats, both often badly overcrowded and dilapidated.

The crash came four days after a collision between a ferry and another vessel on a west Congo lake killed more than 180 people.

AAP