1.00pm
KINSHASA - Congo's military were today investigating how the cargo doors of a Russian-built transport plane burst open in mid-flight on Friday and how many passengers had been catapulted to their deaths.
Congo's Minister for Defense Irung Awan told Reuters that authorities were seeking to verify a state media report which said 170 people had disappeared, far higher than an official count of 17 issued early on Saturday.
Aviation officials, diplomats and survivors all said well over 100 soldiers and civilians had died. If the 170 tally proved correct it would make the freak incident the worst plane accident in Africa since a 1996 crash off the Comoros Islands.
Western diplomats in touch with Congolese officials said they believed the death toll was as high as 180.
Terrified passengers told Reuters today how they had gripped ropes and netting for nearly two hours, their muscles aching, while men, women and children were sucked through the gaping hole at the rear of the Ilyushin-Il 76 jet.
"I saw a soldier cradling a baby and a mother with a baby near the door suddenly just being wrenched into the darkness," said Suzanne Mutelo, 39, who survived the ordeal with her two teenage children.
"We were very frightened and held on for all we were worth," Mutelo told Reuters in Kinshasa. She was returning to Lubumbashi in the southeast of Congo after visiting her father.
Information Minister Kikaya Bin Karubi said the airforce and army were investigating whether the accident was the result of human error or a mechanical problem.
He said he had no idea how many people had been on board the Ilyushin Il-76 jet, which was ferrying troops from Kinshasa to the Democratic Republic of Congo's second city of Lubumbashi.
Karubi said the plane's cargo doors burst open late on Thursday at about 10,000 feet. Some reports said it happened at 10,000 meters (33,000 feet).
Ukraine's Defense Ministry spokesman Konstantin Khyvrenko said on Saturday that the jet was owned by the Ukrainian air transport company, a state-owned firm. He said no one was hurt.
But survivors described a harrowing scene.
"People and boxes were crashing into the sides of the plane. Some of them were badly injured. Some on the head, some on the arms," Mutelo told Reuters at her father's home in Kinshasa.
"When we landed the majority of the people had disappeared," she said, adding that about 200 people had boarded the plane.
A Congolese military pilot said many people had died. He said members of a police rapid response force had demanded to board the plane at the last minute after it was already packed.
The army and the government often charter cargo planes to transport military personnel and civil servants, many with their families, in the mineral-rich southern province of Katanga.
Traveling overland is not an option for long distances because roads and railways in the vast former Belgian colony are devastated by decades of war and neglect. But planes are often old and poorly maintained, and the safety record is dire.
In the country's worst air disaster, an Antonov-32 plowed into a crowded Kinshasa market place just after takeoff in 1996. At least 350 people were killed.
Below is a chronology of some major air crashes in Africa in recent years.
Jan 8, 1996 - At least 350 people die when a Russian-built Antonov-32 cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in central Kinshasa, capital of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo).
Nov 23, 1996 - 125 of the 175 passengers and crew die when a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashes into the sea off the Comoros Islands.
Jan 30, 2000 - A Kenya Airways Airbus A-310 crashes into the sea shortly after takeoff from Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, killing 169 of the 179 passengers and crew.
Nov 1, 2000 - A Russian-built passenger plane crashes after exploding in the air in northeast Angola, killing all 48 people on board. UNITA rebels say they shot it down.
Nov 15, 2000 - An Antonov plane crashes near the Angolan capital Luanda, killing all 39 people aboard.
May 4, 2002 - A Nigerian EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 with 79 people on board crashes in the north Nigerian city of Kano. At least 148 people are killed, 75 from the plane and at least 73 on the ground.
July 4, 2002 - A Sudan Airways cargo plane crashes into a residential zone of the Central African Republic's capital Bangui, killing 23 people, mostly passengers and crew.
March 6, 2003 - An Algerian Boeing 737-200 crashes shortly after takeoff from Tamanrasset airport, killing 103 passengers and crew, Algerian television says.
May 8, 2003 - Cargo door opens in mid-flight on a Russian- built Ilyushin 76 transport plane in the Democratic Republic of Congo, possibly sending scores of passengers to their deaths. As the official deathtoll rose, aviation officials, diplomats and a survivor all said more than 100 soldiers and family members had been killed.
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