One crew dead and three injured in another plane crash in South Sudan

ANOTHER PLANE CRASH IN SOUTH SUDAN KILLS ONE CREW AND INJURES THREE OTHERS

(Posted 18th February 2014)

A Hawker Siddeley 748 plane, operating on a humanitarian relief mission to Rubkona near Bentiu, with a crew of 4 on board, crashed on landing yesterday afternoon.

From preliminary information obtained from sources in Juba, South Sudan’s capital city, it appears that the aircraft was damaged beyond repair with a loss of the cargo, loss of life and injuries to other crew members who survived the crash. The flight did originate from Juba International Airport.

No information however is available as yet on the operator or owner of the aircraft, nor has the registration of the plane been made public, nor are any circumstances which could have led to the crash ascertained at this time. As soon as any further information becomes available updates will be filed, so watch this space over the coming hours.

South Sudan, and even more so the Republic of The Sudan, have a chequered history in aviation with a series of crashes recorded when the two countries were still united and independent South Sudan has in its short history already suffered a series of crashes, some by foreign registered aircraft flying on charter inside South Sudan, prompting calls for stricter regulatory oversight, more emphasis on training of manpower and the need to build capacity within the South Sudan civil aviation body to more effectively supervise the sector.

From additional information now received it appears that the plane, while attempting to land, struck one or two vehicles, which were parked too close to the runway, with the wing. The aircraft, registered in Kenya as 5Y-HAJ and manufactured in 1980 with serial number C/N 1776, was chartered by IOM, the International Organization on Migration, which had planned to send supplies for internally displaced people who fled from the fighting between the two opposing political factions of the SPLM. The injured crew members, as well as the body of the deceased crew who died in the accident, were airlifted by UNMISS personnel back to Juba. 

UNMISS @unmisspio

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