Bad weather seen as cause in DR Congo plane disappearance
A cargo plane that disappeared in eastern Democratic of Congo with eight people onboard, some of whom are reportedly Russian, is likely to have crashed because of bad weather, officials said Friday.
The Antonov 72 had taken off Thursday from the eastern city of Goma, where it had brought equipment for a visit by President Felix Tshisekedi, and was heading back to the capital Kinshasa.
Giscard Kusema, deputy head of Tshisekedi's press office, said "we are more and more favouring the theory of a crash."
"What we know is that the plane took off when weather conditions in the area were terrible."
Contact with the aircraft was lost "59 minutes after takeoff," the DRC's Civil Aviation Authority (AAC) said.
It carried six hours' worth of fuel, it said.
The cargo plane had been carrying part of Tshisekedi's motorcade, along with three members of the elite Republican Guard and a driver, Kusema said.
In Moscow, the Interfax news agency quoted Natalia Kononova, an employee at the Russian embassy in the DRC, as saying that Russian citizens were part of the crew.
"We are verifying how many," she said.
Tshisekedi returned to Kinshasa late Thursday after his visit, the second to the strife-torn Beni region since taking office in January from Joseph Kabila, who ruled the DRC with an iron fist for 17 years.
Several hundred Tshisekedi supporters took part in an anti-Kabila demonstration on Friday, accusing followers of the former president of being behind the crash.
"A normal plane crash can occur for technical problems, but what happened yesterday is an attack on the head of state, a failed coup. It's Kabila who organised that with his supporters," said one of the demonstrators, Shalako Mushala.
Aircraft accidents involving Antonovs are common in the DRC, sometimes involving a large loss of life.
In September 2017, an Antonov cargo plane chartered by the army crashed near Kinshasa, killing all 12 people on board.
In January 1996, an overloaded Antonov overshot the runway in Kinshasa and crashed into a crowded market, killing hundreds.