At least 40 survivors have been pulled from a crashed airplane that killed at least 53 people at Kisangani International Airport in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday.
“Fifty-three dead, that is the last figure I have,” Stavros Papaioannou, chief executive of the Congolese Hewa Bora airline, told Reuters by telephone, while cautioning that the toll was likely to be revised.
Our correspondent Trésor Kibangula, who is from Kisangani, said that the number of victimes is still not sure. It is not sure if there are 53 injured or dead people, he added.
The Boeing 727 was carrying 112 passengers, according to a government spokesman.
Bad weather
The plane was trying to land in bad weather, an official for the Congolese airline Hewa Bora, RTE News reported.
“The pilot tried to land but apparently they didn’t touch the runway,” Papaioannou said.
Hewa Bora is on a European Union list of airlines banned due to security concerns, RTE reported. Congo has one of the worst air transport safety and security records in the world.
Sources: Trésor Kibangula, today.msnbc.msn.com
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