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Horror scenes after plane crash
04/10/2007 17:53 - (SA)
Kinshasa - Reports say ten houses have been damaged severely, three nearly destroyed by fire, after a cargo plane smashed into a residential neighbourhood in Congo's capital just after take-off from the international airport Thursday, killing at least 19 people and engulfing homes in flames.
Three houses near a market in Kinshasa's Kingasani neighbourhood were destroyed by fire after the crash and smoke filled the sky, according to an Associated Press reporter on the scene.
Civil aviation chief Alphonse Ilunga said 19 bodies had been dragged out of the rubble so far.
Little left of plane
Ilunga said the plane's flight manifest indicated 16 people aboard, but an unknown number of other boarded before takeoff.
There appeared to be little left of the plane. Two detached wheels sat on top of a house and a plane window and pieces of charred metal were visible as fire fighters struggled to put out the fire. A crowd of onlookers, including wailing friends and relatives, gathered.
It was not immediately known what caused the crash.
Several witnesses said the plane had apparently lost one of its propellers before it went down and the pilots may have been trying to return to the airport.
An eye-witness said: "The plane clipped several treetops and hit the roofs of three houses, crashing onto its back with its tires in the air. There was a huge explosion."
Another eye-witness said he and several other people pulled a woman, burned from head to toe, out of the burning wreckage of one of the homes that had been hit.
"She was hovering between life and death. It was horrible."
Plane had a Russian crew
Rescue workers hauled bodies out of the rubble, covering them in plastic sacks. Ambulances raced between the crash site and a hospital in Kinshasa.
Airport officer Appo Ilunga said the Antonov 26 went down shortly after takeoff around 09:30 (GMT).
Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency reported the plane had a Russian crew.
It reported that the plane belonged to Congolese carrier Africa One. The five-year-old Congolese company is one of a host of African airlines banned from flying in the European Union because of safety concerns.
UN-funded Radio Okapi cited witnesses in the area as saying the plane damaged 10 houses on three streets in Kingasani, about 5km from Kinshasa airport.
- AP
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