Dozens believed dead in Congo plane crash

A plane carrying 112 people has crashed while trying to land at Kisangani international airport in Democratic Republic of Congo.

A passenger plane has crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo killing an unknown number of people, an airline official said.

Stavros Papaioannou, chief executive of Hewa Bora Airways, said: “I confirm the crash of one of our planes. I don’t yet have the details but it’s sure that some of the people died.”

He said it was flying from the capital Kinshasa to the city of Kisangani.

Information Minister Lambert Mende says there are 40 survivors but gave no death toll.

Hewa Bora, which means “Fresh Air” in Swahili, has a history of crashes.

In April 2008, one of their DC-9s rammed into a bustling market after failing to lift off from Goma’s airport, killing at least 40 people.

That same year in September, a Hewa Bora plane carrying 17 people went down in bad weather killing all on board.

Sabiti Mwamba, the director of the Congolese Aviation Authority, said the plane was likely to have crashed because of bad weather.

“The crash was due to the bad weather at the moment when the plane was landing,” Mwamba said.

Mr Mende said the plane went down a few metres from the Kisangani airport.

“It was due to the thunder,” he said. “We have already helped take out at least 40 survivors and the rescue operation is ongoing.”