Mzee Mwanakijiji
Platinum Member
- Mar 10, 2006
- 33,474
- 39,987
Congolese President Joseph Kabila sacked his transport minister on Friday as the death toll from the latest air accident in the central African country rose to more than 50.
But Democratic Republic of Congo's authorities announced that a Congolese mechanic aboard the Russian-made cargo plane that came down in Kinshasa on Thursday had survived the crash. Officials had previously said all the plane's occupants died.
Congo has one of the world's worst aviation safety records and Thursday's air disaster, in which an Antonov 26 plunged into a neighborhood of the sprawling riverside capital, was the latest and most deadly of a series of recent accidents.
Transport Minister Remy Henri Kuseyo Gatanga was sacked "for being incapable of organizing the aviation sector," presidential spokesman Kudura Kasongo said in Kinshasa.
The Humanitarian Affairs Ministry raised its provisional death toll from the accident to 51 from 38 and said this could rise further. At least 25 people were badly injured, apparently all on the ground when the plane crashed into the neighborhood.
Ministry spokesman Saleh Kinyongo, revising an earlier figure given of 52 dead, said a Congolese mechanic aboard the Russian-piloted plane was found to have survived.
"We now know there is a survivor in hospital. He's the mechanic (of the plane)," he told Reuters.
Kinyongo named him as Dede Ngama and said he was recovering in Kinshasa's Roi Baudouin hospital. "He's alive and well. He's talking and he's even been on TV," he added.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said earlier the Russian captain, co-pilot and flight engineer of the plane were all killed.
Congo's cabinet met on Friday to look at ways of toughening existing air safety regulations, including improved inspection and harsher penalties for offenders.
At the crash site in the Kingasani neighborhood, police struggled to keep back onlookers and looters. Officers made several arrests of young men who tried to scavenge scrap metal, engine parts and valuables from the twisted, blackened wreckage.
The twin-propeller aircraft had crashed onto houses in the Kingasani district shortly after taking off from nearby Ndjili international airport.
"I was at the market when the crash happened. One of my three children is dead. Two others are missing," local resident Marie Simbi told Reuters.
My Take:
- Walikufa watu 900 MV Bukoba ilipozama
- Wakafa watu 200 ajali ya treni
- Wakafa watu karibu 55 kilomita chache toka Bunge lilikokuwa linakutana kwa ajali ya basi kuungua
- Wakafa watu 21 kwenye ajali ya basi kule Moshi
- Wakafa watu 100 kwenye MV Kilombero..
Guess what never happened in Tanzania...?
But Democratic Republic of Congo's authorities announced that a Congolese mechanic aboard the Russian-made cargo plane that came down in Kinshasa on Thursday had survived the crash. Officials had previously said all the plane's occupants died.
Congo has one of the world's worst aviation safety records and Thursday's air disaster, in which an Antonov 26 plunged into a neighborhood of the sprawling riverside capital, was the latest and most deadly of a series of recent accidents.
Transport Minister Remy Henri Kuseyo Gatanga was sacked "for being incapable of organizing the aviation sector," presidential spokesman Kudura Kasongo said in Kinshasa.
The Humanitarian Affairs Ministry raised its provisional death toll from the accident to 51 from 38 and said this could rise further. At least 25 people were badly injured, apparently all on the ground when the plane crashed into the neighborhood.
Ministry spokesman Saleh Kinyongo, revising an earlier figure given of 52 dead, said a Congolese mechanic aboard the Russian-piloted plane was found to have survived.
"We now know there is a survivor in hospital. He's the mechanic (of the plane)," he told Reuters.
Kinyongo named him as Dede Ngama and said he was recovering in Kinshasa's Roi Baudouin hospital. "He's alive and well. He's talking and he's even been on TV," he added.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said earlier the Russian captain, co-pilot and flight engineer of the plane were all killed.
Congo's cabinet met on Friday to look at ways of toughening existing air safety regulations, including improved inspection and harsher penalties for offenders.
At the crash site in the Kingasani neighborhood, police struggled to keep back onlookers and looters. Officers made several arrests of young men who tried to scavenge scrap metal, engine parts and valuables from the twisted, blackened wreckage.
The twin-propeller aircraft had crashed onto houses in the Kingasani district shortly after taking off from nearby Ndjili international airport.
"I was at the market when the crash happened. One of my three children is dead. Two others are missing," local resident Marie Simbi told Reuters.
My Take:
- Walikufa watu 900 MV Bukoba ilipozama
- Wakafa watu 200 ajali ya treni
- Wakafa watu karibu 55 kilomita chache toka Bunge lilikokuwa linakutana kwa ajali ya basi kuungua
- Wakafa watu 21 kwenye ajali ya basi kule Moshi
- Wakafa watu 100 kwenye MV Kilombero..
Guess what never happened in Tanzania...?
