Republic of Congo crashed on landing at Kinshasa Airport yesterday, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
The aircraft broke up into several pieces when it hit the runway in torrential rain as the pilot was trying to land shortly after 1300 GMT.
The correspondent saw 16 bodies brought out of the wreckage, and an airport official said three or four survivors had been rescued. Around 30 people were reported to have been on board. Aircraft accidents are common in DRC, but this was the first involving a plane of the UN mission in the country, known as Monusco, which was set up in 1999.
The plane had flown in from Kisangani in the northeast of the country. No UN official was immediately available for comment on the accident or further information.
Meanwhile, an association that represents families of victims of a 2009 Air France crash in the Atlantic said news that bodies had been found in the plane’s submerged wreckage was “very encouraging.”
Investigators in Paris said three robot submarines had located the wreckage of the A330 and bodies had been seen in the remains of the plane’s cabin.
“It’s very encouraging for us who have been without news and now have hope of retrieving the bodies. We can finally bury them,” said Nelson Marinho, president of the association of relatives of the victims.
The Air France jet crashed in June 2009 in the Atlantic off Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people aboard.
In the latest search, launched March 25, investigators focused on finding the plane’s wreckage, and on Sunday finally succeeded.
French Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said three Remus autonomous submarines had photographed bodies in a large section of the cabin that remained intact.
“Everything did not explode . . . there’s a part of the cabin and in this part of the cabin, there are bodies,” she told France Inter public radio.
Marinho expressed hope that the find will help establish what happened to the A330 before it suddenly plummeted into the sea.
Three previous attempts to locate the plane’s “black box” recorders failed, but investigators now hope that the plane’s wreckage will lead them to the voice and data recorders.
He said France’s Bureau of Investigation and Analysis has invited representatives of the families of victims to Paris in about 15 days for a meeting. – AFP.

You Might Also Like

Comments