Aviation

15.4, crash, fatalities

Democratic Republic of the Congo: a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 9Q-CHN crashed into a residential area and caught fire following take-off from Goma Airport. The aircraft was destroyed. Seventy-nine of the 85 persons on board were killed. The cause of the crash was not known, but passengers and local officials said the aircraft had been delayed briefly by rain, then apparently blew a tyre and went out of control while trying to take off, ramming through a runway fence and into a densely populated neighbourhood. Both black boxes were recovered and technicians plan to analyze their information. The district of Birere where the crash happened was sealed off as rescuers hunted for more bodies feared to be lying under smashed shops and houses. Calls have grown for Kinshasa to enact “urgent, effective and durable measures” to make the country’s skies safe. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s aviation sector is generally viewed as being in a chronic state of disrepair, with ageing Soviet-era aircraft littering the country’s stock. Every single one of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 50-odd registered airlines has been placed on a European Union blacklist alongside companies from Sierra Leone, Ukraine, North Korea and Liberia. A 2006 ruling prohibits entry to European airspace, with the Goma aircraft’s owners Hewa Bora having been added to the EU blacklist just last week. It was the country’s fifth fatal plane crash since June last year.