Boeing 737 carrying two crew crashes in Congo

Published: 7:15AM Thursday April 30, 2009 Source: Reuters

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A Boeing 737 with two crew members on board crashed in Democratic Republic of Congo about 200 km from Kinshasa, a government official said.
   
Richard Ndambu, governor of Bandundu province, said the aircraft had been flying from Central African Republic to Zimbabwe and crashed after a stopover in Congo Republic.
   
"It was a 737 from Central African Republic that took off this morning from Bangui and made a stopover in Brazzaville and was then heading for Harare for a check," he said.
   
"We don't yet know the name of the company. That is what we have learned from the control tower in Brazzaville."
   
Godefroid Pindi, head of local radio in the town of Kenge, said the plane had gone down between Kenge and Nzasi in Bandundu province and that villagers had reported a large cloud of smoke.
   
It was not known whether the crew survived the crash.
   
"There were two people on board, the crew. Their documents were found at the site. There were no passengers," Ndambu said.
   
According to the International Air Transport Association, Africa's air accident rate is six times worse than the rest of the world.
   
An aid plane crashed into a mountain eastern Congo in September killing 17 people and a Congolese airliner crashed into a market district in the eastern city of Goma last April killing at least 40 people, mostly on the ground.

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