The UN has reported that a cargo plane carrying telecoms equipment has crashed in eastern Congo, killing up to eight passengers and crew. The plane carrying telecom gear from Kisangani to Goma, near the border with Rwanda, went down late Thursday. Everyone on board - five passengers and either two or three crew members - died in the crash, U.N. spokesman Billy Bilamekaso Tchagele said.
The crash site is said to be far from any population centers and the cause of the crash is unknown. The Congo government has little effective control of the area, and UN troops are attempting to impose peace in the region which has been subject to regular incursions by the Rwandan Army. While military action cannot be ruled out, Congo has an air crash frequency that is six times the global average. Many of Congo's private airlines are notoriously unreliable, flying aging aircraft across a country the size of Western Europe with few roads.
The plane wasn't affiliated with the United Nations, and whom it was delivering telecoms equipment on behalf of has not been released.
The town of Goma is situated on the shores of Lake Kivu, which is a potential site of a devastating natural disaster in the future, known as a Limnic Eruption."
Posted to the site on 2nd May 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/17196.php