Plane Slams Into Congo’s Capital
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
KINSHASA — A cargo plane crashed in a residential neighborhood of Congo’s capital this morning, airport officials said.
Airport officer Appo Ilunga said the Antonov-26 crashed into a market area of the Kingasani neighborhood around 10:30 a.m. He said he did not yet know if there were any deaths, or how many people were aboard the plane.
A witness reached by phone said the area was full of smoke and it was hard to tell if there had been deaths or injuries. The witness, Papy Kangufu, said the market was full of people when the plane crashed.
Mr. Ilunga said the plane had just taken off from the airport en route to central Congo. Kingasani is about three miles from the Kinshasa airport.
Cargo planes in Congo are frequently flown by experienced pilots from former Soviet states but the aircraft are often old, ill-maintained, and overcrowded.
Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the plane had a Russian crew.
In 1996, an Antonov-32 turboprop crashed seconds after takeoff from Kinshasa’s main airport, skidding across a busy street and plowing into a crowded open-air market. The crash killed at least 300 people, one of the worst air accidents in Congo’s history.
Few passable roads traverse Congo after decades of war and corrupt rule, forcing the country’s deeply impoverished people to rely on often-unsafe boats and planes for transportation.
