Passengers 4 Fatalities 6 Date 4 March 2013 Injuries (nonfatal) 3 | Crew 5 Survivors 3 Number of deaths 6 Survivor 3 | |
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Summary Crashed in an empty lot in a residential area while landing in poor weather Site Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo Destination Goma International Airport Operator Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation Similar Nepal Airlines Flight 555, 2013 Siberia Polar Airli, 2013 Loreto Helicópte, 2013 Soldotna Rediske, Associated Aviation Flight 361 | ||
On 4 March 2013, a Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation Fokker 50 making a domestic cargo flight from Lodja Airport to Goma International Airport, Democratic Republic of the Congo crashed in poor weather on approach to Goma. There were nine people on the aircraft; six died in the accident. No fatalities were reported on the ground, despite the aircraft crashing into a populated area.
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Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the accident was a twin-turboprop Fokker 50, registration 9Q-CBD, that was powered with a twin PWC PW125B powerplant and had its maiden flight on 9 December 1992 with registration PH-LXJ. Having serial number 20270, it was delivered to Air UK on 28 October 1994 and re-registered G-UKTE. This registration was kept following the rebranding of Air UK to KLM uk in January 1998 (1998-01). KLM Cityhopper re-registered the aircraft as PH-LXJ in March 2003 (2003-03), and returned it to the lessor in 2010 (2010). In March the same year, it was re-registered 9Q-CBD and delivered to Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation. The aircraft was 7008638496000000000♠20 years and 85 days old at the time of the accident.
Accident
The aircraft was two minutes from touching down at Goma airport on a cargo service from Lodja Airport, 640 kilometres (400 mi) west of Goma. At 17:55 local time, the aircraft crashed in an empty lot in the middle of the city. No distress calls were made prior to the crash.
There were nine people on board the aircraft, including six airline employees—a crew of five and a security guard—and three passengers. All six employees were killed in the accident. Except for the pilot, a 46-year-old Russian national named Alexander Bazhenov, the dead were all from the Congo. The Russian consul to the Democratic Republic of the Congo confirmed that a Russian national was on board. Initial reports of 30–50 fatalities were not substantiated.
Aftermath
Following the crash, the Ministry of Transport of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced a re-certification of all airlines having an operator's certificate issued in the country that were subject to a ban in the European Union.