Plane overshoots runway in east Congo, landing in lava

More than 120 passengers and crew were on board the MD-80 airliner which landed at Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a flight from the capital Kinshasa.

The pilot failed to break in time to make a turn at the end of the runway, said David Blattner, head of the Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation (CAA) which operates the plane, adding that he did not know the accident's precise cause.

“The passengers were evacuated on the emergency chutes and in the rainy conditions, there were a number who were slightly injured,” Blattner said. The nose of the plane crashed into blocks of lava which have marked the end of the runway at Goma since a nearby volcano erupted in 2002.

However, a Congolese airline pilot said pilots had been protesting for some time that the runway is too short, at 2,000 metres, for MD-80 planes. “You need at least 2,500 metres for MD-80s. We have been asking the civil aviation authority to ban these planes from this runway for some time, but in vain,” said the pilot, who declined to be named.

Air crashes are frequent in DR Congo and all the country's carriers have been banned from operating in European Union airspace.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email