At least 50 die in the Congo as plane hits houses

Congo fired its transport minister tonight as emergency workers extinguished the last flames from a plane crash which killed at least 50 people, finding still more bodies in the wreckage.

Saleh Kinyongo, spokesman for Congo’s humanitarian affairs ministry, said 28 bodies had been retrieved in the capital Kinshasa so far, all of them local residents. Another 22 aboard the plane were presumed dead, he said.

The cargo plane slammed into three houses last night just after taking off from Kinshasa’s international airport on a flight to central Congo.

Six homes were destroyed in either the crash or the fire that burned until the early hours of this morning, the humanitarian affairs ministry said.

Seven people who had been at the site of the crash were still missing, Mr Kinyongo said, suggesting that the death toll could climb higher. He said earlier reports that 12 bodies of passengers and crew had been pulled from the wreckage were incorrect.

The ministry had previously reported at least 39 dead.

The crash was the latest in a series of deadly transport accidents in recent months including a number of plane crashes and a train derailment that killed about 100 people.

The Congolese Red Cross said that so much of the area had turned to ashes in the fire that it was getting difficult to identify bodies.

“There’s still a chance that we can tell they are bodies because the ashes keep a bit of the shape,” spokesman Alphonse Mulowayi said. He added that at least 29 people had been seriously injured in the accident.

A government spokesman announced the firing of transport minister Remy Kuseyo on state television, but did not say if he was accused of wrongdoing or negligence.

Mr Kuseyo had said that the plane should have been kept from taking off from N’Djili Airport by a three-week old ban put on Antonov model planes following recent crashes. He argued tonight that his dismissal was unjust.

“Measures had been taken. I had taken measures, but I am not the one who was to have put the measures in place on the ground,” Mr Kuseyo told The Associated Press.

The crash last night underlined the dangers of flying in Congo, which has experienced more fatal air crashes than any other African country since 1945, according to the Aviation Safety Network. The turboprop belonged to the Congolese company, Africa One, which had been barred from flying in the European Union because of safety concerns.

It was not immediately known what caused the Antonov 26 piloted by a Russian crew to go down last night. One of the plane’s propellers broke off during take-off, and one of its wings was sheared off as it hit a bank of trees, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Police reports show people aboard survived the crash – a mechanic and a flight attendant who was in critical condition – said UN peacekeeping spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux.