‘The aircraft swung ... that’s when people fell out’

AMONG the survivors recovering in Kinshasa General Hospital after the Congo air disaster, which saw more than 100 passengers sucked out of their plane when the cargo ramp opened mid-flight, was a policeman, who gave his name only as Katembo.

“Thirty-five minutes after take-off, we heard a loud noise inside the plane, like hissing, and then the ramp fell off. The aircraft swung from side to side and that’s when the people fell out,” he said. “Only the people who had the reflex to reach for ropes on the walls were able to stay inside,” Katembo added.

Democratic Republic of Congo officials said an enquiry would be carried out by the army since the Kasai provinces, over which the accident happened, are mining areas accessible only to people with special passes from the government. The IL-76, a long-range military transport, cargo and fire-fighting plane, can be fitted, as in this case, with a large rear bay door running for roughly the length of the tail along the belly of the fuselage.

The aircraft had been chartered for the flight by the Congolese military and was carrying more than 100 officers of the police rapid intervention force and members of their families.

The plane belongs to Ukraine’s defence ministry and the crew have been working in the Congo on contract, according to diplomatic sources.

The Ilyushin76 has had a checkered safety record, including at least 45 accidents that resulted in some 393 deaths. Military sources in the Congo yesterday said about 160 people fell from the IL-76 when the plane’s rear cargo bay door opened in mid-flight from Kinshasa to the main southeastern city, Lubumbashi.

Forty people were reported to have survived the disaster after the Russian pilot turned the plane round and flew back to the capital in the west.

Meanwhile, the compound of the UN peacekeeping force in the town of Bunia was under siege yesterday after being attacked by hundreds of people, the UN said.

“Machine guns and light arms were discharged at the UN headquarters and at least one explosion, from either a grenade or a rocket, was heard,” associate spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

“We have no information at present of any UN casualties,” she added.

Earlier, spokesman Fred Eckhard said the UN sector commander was slightly injured by a machete when a mob of hundreds of civilians and militia stormed the compound and troops fired warning shots to disperse the crowd.

Later, the mission “came under renewed attack”, Ms Okabe said.

“Several UN armoured personnel carriers and a bulldozer were called in from our small contingent stationed at Bunia airport and managed to clear the street in front of the headquarters.”

Mr Eckhard said the mob was demanding “a more robust response for the protection of civilians” in the unstable northeast of the country.

The head of UN peacekeeping operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, was expected to brief the Security Council later yesterday and would report that Bunia is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, he said.