At least 14 people, including two senior military officials, were killed on Friday when a small plane carrying a military justice delegation crashed in Kenge, the capital of Kwango province in the south-western Democratic Republic of the Congo. The crash occurred in Kenge, more than 200 kilometres east of the capital, Kinshasa.
Victims and flight path before the crash
The presidency said the victims included Lieutenant General Mutombo Katalaïe Tiende, president of the military court, and Lieutenant General Bakoumi Likoulia, prosecutor of the Congolese armed forces. The army said 12 other delegation members and crew also died in the crash. The plane was returning from a military mission in the city of Kikwit in neighbouring Kwilu province and was heading to Kinshasa when the accident occurred.
Rémy Saki Bukenda, deputy governor of Kwango province, said the plane suffered a technical fault during its flight from Kikwit to Kinshasa, prompting the crew to attempt a landing in Kenge. He added that the absence of a runway caused the plane to crash in a residential plot.
Search for black box and official investigation
Images circulating on social media showed flames and black smoke rising from the plane's wreckage, while a number of people gathered around the crash site in a bushy area. Specialist teams are continuing to search for the plane's black box, while Tréphon Kin-Kiey Mulumba, chairman of the board of the civil aviation authority, said the cause of the crash remained unknown.
The presidency said President Félix Tshisekedi had instructed the relevant authorities to conduct a comprehensive investigation to establish the circumstances and causes of the accident precisely. Air transport is a vital means of travel between the Democratic Republic of the Congo's provinces, amid the country's lack of an adequate road network.
The country also experiences frequent plane crashes, most of which are attributed to the poor condition of infrastructure at most airports and navigation equipment, while the fleet of Congo's airlines is on the European Union's blacklist.
