Up to 41 people are feared dead after a plane crash-landed into a nearby community shortly after taking off from South Sudan’s capital Juba, reports say.
A police officer and local media reported at least 41 people had been killed as bodies were counted at the wreck site.
Police were pulling bodies of men, women and children out of the wreckage of the cargo plane, which crashed into a small farming community on a small island in the White Nile river, close to Juba airport.
Several small farming communities live on the island, but it is not clear if some of the victims were people who were on the ground when the plane hit.
“Cargo plane heading to Paloch in Upper Nile State crashed just 800 metres from Juba International Airport runway,” reported Radio Miraya, a UN-backed station.
The radio said airport officials had told them only three passengers had survived.
The main fuselage of the plane had ploughed into thick woodland, with debris scattered around the riverbank in a wide area.
Several small farming communities live on the island, and it was not clear if some of the victims were people who were on the ground when the plane hit.
Radmir Gainanov, spokesman for Russia’s diplomatic mission in Uganda, which also oversees South Sudan, said the embassy was in touch with local authorities, including the defence ministry.
“We are clarifying details,” he told AFP from Uganda.
Juba’s airport is the busiest in the war-torn country, which is the size of Spain and Portugal combined but with few tarred roads.
Wednesday 4 November 2015
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/plane-crash-kills-ten-passengers-in-south-sudan/story-e6frfq80-1227596478592
