Aircraft

One of the Boeing MD-82 aircraft operated by Congolese carrier Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation (CAA) has been badly damaged in an apparent runway overrun in Goma.

The aircraft - a 21-year old airframe registered 9Q-CAB - came to rest, pitched up, on a bank of boulders off the runway end.

It suffered extensive damage to its underside forward fuselage and nose-gear, and the accident left the jet's aft in contact with the ground.

Both thrust-reversers on its Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines appear fully deployed. Twenty occupants are said to be injured from 117 on board.

CAA's timetable shows that the jet was scheduled to operate Kinshasa-Goma today as flight 3711.

Goma Airport, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, was exposed to a volcanic eruption in 2002 which created a lava flow that covered the northern end of runway 36, shortening its available length to around 2,000m.

Last year a Hewa Bora Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-9 fatally overran the southern end of the same runway, crashing into a residential area.