Russian plane crash: 41 dead in South Sudan as pilot hailed a hero

REUTERS/AFP/TWITTER

The 'overcrowded' Russian-made cargo plane was carrying up to 20 passengers and crashed after taking off from the airport in South Sudan's capital Juba. 

At least 41 people are dead, including some children, according to a presidential spokesman and witnesses.

The plane came down just one mile from the airport, with a cause not yet identified. 

The pilot has been hailed a hero, after an eyewitness said he swerved past a packed market at the last minute.

AFP news agency reports that the Soviet-era plane was made in 1971 and was carrying too many passengers.

The crash comes just four days after 224 people died when the Metrojet plane travelling from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg broke up in the air over the Sinai Desert^[1].

The plane was carrying 18 people, including the six foreign crew, according to official documents. He said 15 of them died and three South Sudanese nationals survived, including a child.

The Civil Aviation Authority said the number of dead was still being counted after the Antonov-12 B plane turbo prop plane crashed soon after take off.

The chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority at Juba airport, Stephen Warikozi, said: "We have rushed to the site of crash and have secured it and also are in the stage of recovering bodies and black box.

"We are still now recovering the dead bodies and we cannot give you the exact number."

GOOGLE

INVESTIGATION: Officials in whtie suits clear the debris and retrieve bodies

REUTERS

“We don't know the number of people that were killed on the ground”

Presidential spokesman

Packages of cheap sandals, cigarettes, beer and crackers were strewn amid the wreckage.

Bashir Yashin, who saw the plane come down, said it seemed as though it might crash into a market area before the pilot apparently diverted it.

Another witness, Angelo Kenyi, said a child, who looked no more than a year old, and an elderly woman were pulled from the plane.

Shortly after taking off from Juba airport the plane came down on the banks of the White Nile River, leaving a tail fin and lumps of fuselage strewn in vegetation close to the water.

The Antonov plane is thought to have crashed near where some fishermen were working, with other reports saying it came down in a farming community on a small island.

AFP/GETTY

The Russian diplomatic mission in Uganda says it is in contact with South Sudanese officials over the plane crash, wih a spokesman telling AFP they were "clarifying details". 

A police officer at the scene said at least 41 people died, but said the number could climb, with the number backed up by witnesses who counted bodies.

Earlier, South Sudanese media had said the cargo plane carried five Russian crew and seven passengers.

The six crew on the plane bound for Paloch, in the north of South Sudan, comprised five Armenians and one Russian, Mr Warikozi added. All the others on the flight were South Sudanese.

It is common for the security services to put family members on the cargo planes to Paloich even if they are not on the manifest, according to Kenyi Galla, from Combined Air Services, a company operating chartered flights in South Sudan.

Mr Galla said: "Normally this flight used to carry 12 people, but the problem is they added more people.

"This plane is just for cargo, not for passengers. It was just chartered for goods."

REUTERS

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It is still not known what caused the Metrojet plane to crash in the Sinai Desert - about 1,700 miles north of South Sudan - on Saturday.

The airline insists it was an "external impact" which caused the jet to break up in mid-air, with the pilot and crew not issuing any distress signals. 

But Egypt has downplayed suggestions the plane may have been blown up by an on-board bomb, dismissing the fears as "pure speculation".

US officials yesterday said satelittes had picked up an infra-red signal from the area which indicated some form of explosion.

ISIS has released propaganda videos claiming responsibility for the Sinai crash, the latest of which came out today^[3], but they remain unsubstantiated.

References

1. ^{^} 224 people died when the Metrojet plane travelling from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg broke up in the air over the Sinai Desert (www.dailystar.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Russian plane crash in Sudan (www.bing.com)
3. ^{^} atest of which came out today (www.dailystar.co.uk)