At least 23 people died this Sunday in the crash of a plane that crashed in a neighborhood near the Goma airport, eastern city of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We have 23 bodies” in the morgue, the Goma civil protection coordinator – capital of the North Kivu province – Joseph Makundi told AFP.
The plane of the private company Busy Bee, with two pilots and 17 passengers, crashed shortly after taking off in one of the neighborhoods near the airport, he told AFP Héritier Said Mamadou, in charge of reservation.
In addition to the passengers, residents of Goma are among the victims of the fall of the Dornier-228 aircraft. But relief services still do not give a balance on it.
The plane crashed into a house in the Mapendo / Birere de Goma neighborhood, near the airport, built in the middle of a densely populated area, according to videos circulating on social networks.
A video recovered by the AFP, shows the remains of the plane embedded in the wall of a house.
The plane, whose destination was Beni and Butembo, 350 km north of Goma, “failed to take off,” said the governor of North Kivu, Carly Nzanzu Kasivita, in a statement.
“In principle, it is a technical problem,” said a company technician at the scene of the accident, cited by the news site actualité.cd.
Among the passengers victims of the accident is the coordinator of an association for the defense of women’s rights, Mambo Zawadi.
The company’s management is meeting waiting for the results of the technical investigation carried out by a team in the field.
The United Nations Mission in Congo (Monusco) sent two fire trucks to reinforce Congolese teams.
Busy Bee is a recent company that has a total of three devices of the same type to serve in the areas of Beni and Butembo, nestled in the province of North Kivu.
From Beni, the governor of North Kivu expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.
The governor is in Beni to try to calm the anger of the inhabitants after the massacres of civilians that leave more than 60 dead in a month.
Since August 2018, Beni and Butembo are also the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic that has killed about 2,200 people.
The Goma airport runway had been renovated and enlarged in 2015 after being damaged in 2002 by the eruption of the Nyiaragongo Volcano.
The airport is used for regular flights (Ethiopian Airlines, Congo Airways, CAA, Busy Bee), but especially for aircraft of the United Nations and humanitarian organizations.
Although declining, aircraft accidents remain a risk in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa (2.3 million km2).
On October 10, an Antonov-72 crashed in the center of the country after taking off from Beni.
He transported logistic support equipment to President Felix Tshisekedi, who was returning that same day from a trip through the eastern regions.
Source: Noticiasenlamira
