127 killed in DR. Congo plane crash

All 127 passengers on board were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a commercial plane, operated by Hewa Bora Airways carrying passengers and crew, crashed at Kisangani airport in the northeast of the country.

There were 51 survivors, a statement from the Congolese Transport Ministry said.But there are fears that all 127 passengers are dead  but there were differing reports about the number of survivors, with the government claiming 40 people have been taken out from the  wreckage, while the airline said at least 53  has survived.


 M. Stavros, general director of the Hewa Bora Airways, which operated the crashed aircraft, confirmed the number of deaths in the Friday's accident.

The Hewa Bora Airways plane was enroute Kinshasa to Kisangani and Goma.

Media reports earlier said that at least 53 survivors had been pulled out from the wreckage of the Boeing 727.

   
   "We have recovered 44 bodies and there were two injured who died in hospital, bringing the number of dead to 46," Hewa Bora president Stavros Papaioannou said, adding that the toll could rise.
 The company head said the crew of the Boeing 727 were among those killed but that 53 people had survived the crash.     There was no word on the fate of the other 19 people on board.  "They arrived at Kisangani, there was bad weather,
they tried to land without reaching the runway," he said, adding that heavy rains at the time had hampered the rescue
operation.

  The plane was on its regular commercial route from Kinshasa to Kisangani and Goma when it was hit by the storm as
it approached the airport, Lambert Mende, a spokesman for the local administration said.

 A plume of black smoke could be seen at the end of the runway. But flights, which had been suspended after the crash, resumed a short time later.
     
Hewa Bora said the plane was carrying 112 passengers and a crew made up of three pilots, two stewardesses and a mechanic.
  Plane accidents frequently occur in DR Congo which are often blamed on ageing and poorly maintained aircraft, the
flouting of safety rules and bad weather.