Prime Minister Hage Geingob has officially dispatched the team of investigators to dig deep into the Mozambican flight disaster, which killed 33 people in Kavango East on Friday.
Geingob briefly told the media that he had been assigned by President Hifikepunye Pohamba to ensure that the team is sent off. The team consists of experts from Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, China, the USA and Namibia, who is leading the probe.
The Namibian understands that the premier was briefed by the investigators on their preliminary findings. It is believed the plane crashed a few minutes after 13h00 in Bwabwata National Park, while en route to Angola from Mozambique. Among those on board were six crew members and 27 passengers, of whom 10 were Mozambicans, nine Angolans, five Portuguese, one Portuguese-Brazilian, one French and one Chinese. By yesterday afternoon, only 31 bodies had been found and airlifted to Windhoek. Paul Ludik, the Director of the National Forensic Science Institute in Namibia, who is part of the DNA testing team said they were busy at work but declined to give more details.
"The media will be informed later. We are are still busy and it will be difficult to say what time we will finish, considering the bodies and processes involved," he said.
Officials in the ministry of works also said they are going to comply with the International Civil Aviation Organisation rules, which state that a preliminary report should be compiled within 30 days after the accident. It is not yet clear what caused the accident but officials said the plane, an Embraer SA 190, went missing on Friday in bad weather, which caused poor visibility.
DNA tests
Experts carried out DNA tests Monday to identify the 33 people who were on a Mozambique Airlines plane that crashed in Namibia killing all on board, an official said.
Thirty one bodies had by late Sunday been pulled from the charred wreckage of the plane in the swamps of northern Namibia's Bwabwata National Park.
“We are still busy,” Paul Ludik, director of the Namibia's national forensic science institute, told AFP, adding “it will be difficult to say what time we are going to finish, considering the processes involved.”
The institute is leading the probe into the crash and the processes to identify the victims.
“Namibia, as the country where the accident occurred, will lead the investigation,” the airline said in a statement.
Other investigators will be drawn from Angola, Brazil Mozambique and the US National Transport Safety Board.
The plane's black boxes have also been recovered along with two voice recorders, Captain Ericksson Nengola, director of aircraft accident investigations at the Namibian transport ministry, told AFP on Sunday.
Mozambique was to declare a national period of mourning for the victims, who came from Mozambique, Angola, Brazil, China, France and Portugal.
The crash was one of the worst incidents in Mozambique's civil aviation history.
The passenger craft came down in torrential rains on Friday in the remote Namibian region killing its six crew and 27 passengers.
The victims' bodies were transferred by helicopter to the Namibian capital Windhoek from the crash site some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) to the northeast.
The plane, which went down en route from Mozambique to Angola, was a Brazil-manufactured Embraer 190 aircraft and the newest plane in the airline's fleet.
“We have also begun making arrangements for a memorial service for the families, loved ones, friends and colleagues of everyone who was on board,” the airline said
Tuesday 3 December 2013
http://allafrica.com/stories/201312030357.html
http://dawn.com/news/1060014/tests-begin-to-identify-mozambican-plane-crash-victims
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