Safety

Striking twice - Antonov 32B crashed into Kinshasa market place in 1996

 

This has happened before in Kinshasa, reports Flight International's safety and operations editor. He pointed to Flight's safety review for the first six months of 1996.

He reported at the time that "perhaps the most shocking accident this year (1996) is one for which the scale is not reflected in the graph, because most of the deaths occurred not in the aircraft, but on the ground.

"Never in the history of aviation, however, have so many people on the ground been killed by a crashing aeroplane. Nearly 300 people in a shantytown market outside Kinshasa, Zaire, were killed when the captain of an Antonov An-32B made a late decision to abort the take-off, and the aircraft overran the runway and ploughed through the crowds on market day.

Poor airline safety in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has resulted in aircraft registered there being banned from the European Union.

Antonov An-32 freighter crashes on take-off killing 250

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