- Title: ZAIRE: AFTERMATH OF CARGO PLANE CRASH INTO CROWDED MARKET
- Date: 8th January 1996
- Summary: KINSHASA, ZAIRE (JANUARY 8, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV BLACK PLUME OF SMOKE RISING FROM AIRCRAFT WHICH HAS ITS TAIL POKING FROM THE WRECKAGE OF MARKET STALLS 0.05 2. GV OF AIRCRAFT IN MARKET PLACE, PEOPLE WANDERING AROUND 0.13 3. CU PARTS OF AIRCRAFT ENGINE ON THE GROUND 0.15 4. GV PEOPLE WALKING AROUND SITE OF CRASH 0.22 5. SLV TAIL OF PLANE 0.25 6. SV WOMAN CRYING AMOUNG A CROWD OF PEOPLE 0.33 7. GV/SV AIRCRAFT WRECK BURNING (2 SHOTS) 0.44 8. GV/VARIOUS OF BODIES ON THE GROUND COVERED BY CLOTH AND PLASTIC SHEETS (3 SHOTS) 0.57 9. SLV ZAIREAN SOLDIERS WALKING PAST BODIES 1.01 10. SLV/ZOOM OUT WOMAN SEARCHING THROUGH BODIES ON THE GROUND (2 SHOTS) 1.08 11. SLV MEN WALKING THROUGH PILES OF DEBRIS 1.14 12. SV BELONGINGS IN A PILE ON THE GROUND 1.19 13. SV CROWD OF PEOPLE SOME CRYING (2 SHOTS) 1.24 14. SLV FLAMES SHOOTING FROM AIRCRAFT WRECKAGE 1.31 15. GV/SLV SMOKE BILLOWING PAST FIRE ENGINE/ VIEW OF AIRCRAFT BURNING AS PEOPLE IN FOREGROUND SEARCH WRECKAGE (2 SHOTS) 1.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 23rd January 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KINSHASA, ZAIRE
- City:
- Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of
- Reuters ID: LVA7R6EBK4RFFOMARH10IOJR1557
- Story Text: A judicial inquiry swung into action on Tuesday (January 9) to establish the cause of Zaire's worst aviation disaster in which a cargo plane crashed into a crowded market in the capital, Kinshasa killing more than 260 people.
State prosecutor Mukenge Bisimbule told Reuters that 264 people were known so far to have died when the Russian-built Antonov-32 crashed on Monday shortly after take-off.
The death toll equals the world's 10th worst civilian air disaster of all time.
Doctors said they feared more deaths from the undetermined number of wounded rushed to hospitals from the smouldering wreck of the plane and the ramshackle market at the end of the runway of Ndolo domestic airport.
The government, declaring a three-day period of mourning, ordered all cargo planes registered in Zaire to be grounded until they passed compulsory technical tests.
Monday's crash of the Antonov-32 belonging to a private Zairean firm, African Air, happened less than a month after the death of 141 people when another Zairean plane came down in Angola.
Most of the victims of Monday's crash were women and children packing the city centre market of corrugated iron and wooden shacks.
Rescuers pulled bodies from the wreck of the Russian-built plane and from the corrugated iron and wooden shacks that made up Simba Zikidi the market.
The plane ploughed through the market for about 100 metres before it came to a halt. It belched flames and clouds of black smoke.
Wreckage from the aircraft was scattered across the site.
Four Russian crew members escaped the crash itself and the vengeance of an mob that followed them to a city clinic. Two other crew members -- a Ukrainian and a Zairean remained missing, Zaire's state prosecutor said.
A Zairean air force colonel who was at the airport when the Antonov-32 attempted to take off said the aircraft appeared to be overloaded.
In the past, the Zaire pilots association has complained of lack of regulation in the country's civil aviation.
Private airline companies have mushroomed as the most viable means of transportation in Zaire because the road network has broken in the Central African country, whose economy is marked by neglect, corruption and mismanagement.
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