ALL passengers and crew survived a plane crash in South Sudan on Monday in which the jet hit a fire truck on the runway before bursting into flames.
“There is no one who died,” Bona Gaudensio, information minister in the northwestern state of Wau where the accident happened, said yesterday.
He said 37 people had been treated for injuries in hospital but, miraculously, no one was killed, despite a fireball consuming the plane soon after it crash landed. Gaudensio said 31 have so far been discharged, with the remaining ones in stable conditions. Presidential Spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny announced on state-owned radio that the injured will be transported to Juba to receive advanced medical care.
The plane was carrying 43 passengers and six crew members. A Chinese passenger was safe, China News Service reported.
Wau is a regional capital with a busy airport used by the United Nations and aid agencies as well as private and commercial planes.
“The plane hit a fire brigade truck, that is how it caught fire,” said Gaudensio.
He suggested both “a technical problem” and “some negligence” might be to blame and added that an investigation would be carried out.
Bad weather has also been blamed for the accident.
Pascal Ladu of the South Sudan Red Cross said that after plane operated by local carrier South Supreme Airlines hit the truck it burst into flames and “passengers quickly started running out.”
Monday’s crash threw a thick plume of black smoke into the sky as a blaze consumed the plane while firefighters and U.N. peacekeepers worked to contain the fire.
The airport is near the location of Chinese peacekeepers at Wau. After the accident, the Chinese peacekeepers hurried to the spot to help rescue people and put out the fire with water trucks.
In the end, all that remained of the plane was its tail, clearly marked with the South Supreme Airlines logo.
The aircraft had taken off from the capital Juba for Wau on Monday afternoon, according to airline manager Gabriel Ngang.
(SD-Agencies)
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