Posted on 04/15/2008 6:01:00 PM PDT by rdl6989
GOMA, Congo (Reuters) - A Congolese airliner crashed into a market district in the eastern city of Goma on Tuesday, killing at least 33 people and injuring 80, the government said.
The Hewa Bora Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-9 ploughed into a crowded neighbourhood of Goma, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern North Kivu Province, after bad weather forced the pilot to abort take-off.
Government spokesman Esdras Kambale said in a broadcast on national television that 33 people were killed and 80 injured in the crash, but gave no further details.
A local governor and the Congolese Red Cross had initially reported only six survivors and more than 70 dead, but Dirk Cramers, marketing director of Hewa Bora, said the majority of the 79 passengers aboard the plane had survived.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
Crowded neighborhood? Only 33 dead? Sounds like a little underestimating.
I’m afraid the final toll will be a lot higher.
That 'wondering' aside; sad time for those involved here.
. . .and a p.s. . .and no friends; past acquaintances of Obama’s?
UNITED NATIONS, April 15 (Xinhua) — Three UN staff members survived the plane crash that happened Tuesday in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN spokesperson Michele Montas said.
Montas told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York that according to the UN Mission there, seven passengers have survived the crash, including two international UNICEF staff, one of whom is in critical condition, and one national staff member from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the spouse of a national OCHA staff member.
She said that the mission has dispatched first-aid teams with ambulance and fire crews to the site of the crash and UN medical teams are helping to evacuate victims to a UN hospital.
A passenger plane crashed in the town of Goma in DRC shortly after taking off, with 94 people on board. The pilot, his co-pilot and a flight attendant are believed to have survived.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/16/content_7984940.htm
Prayers for the victims.
wow!
Of course, there is always the 'haunt' of Islamic Infidel Control or somesuch. . .
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