Air crash in East Congo kills 17: United Nations

Kinshasa, Aug 4: Seventeen people died in a plane crash in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo today, a United Nations spokeswoman said.

The Russian-made Antonov 28 aircraft was flying in low cloud as it approached the airport at Bukavu in the South Kivu province when it clipped a mountainside and plunged into the forest in flames, the spokeswoman said.

All fourteen passengers and three crew were killed when the plane crashed some 15 km short of the airport runway, she said.

''A rescue team arrived at the scene shortly afterwards but there were no survivors. The plane was completely burned,'' said Sylvie Van den Wildenberg, spokeswoman for the UN mission in Bukavu.

The Antonov plane was operated by a small Congolese company.

UN flights had been suspended due to poor weather conditions.

Friday's accident was the latest in a spate of air crashes over the last year in the vast central African country, which held its first free elections in four decades on July 30 and is struggling to recover from years of war and chaos.

In June, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) called the air safety records of several African countries, including Congo, an ''embarrassment'' for the industry.

In March, the European Union banned all but one of the 51 carriers operating in Congo from flying in Europe.

Following the criticism, the Congolese government has tried to improve air safety by grounding some airlines and regulating the amount of cargo that can be carried.

But using old Soviet-made aircraft is often the only alternative for cash-strapped small African airlines.

Such aircraft are extensively used in Congo, a country the size of western Europe with only 500 km of paved roads.

REUTERS