Du Cabiau à Kinshasa, a Belgian living in Congo, writes (Fr) about last week's plane crash in Kimbanseke, a poor and densely-populated neighborhood in Kinshasa.
At least 50 were killed in the crash and dozens more injured. The transport minister has since been dismissed for “his inability to reform the aviation sector.”
Du Cabiau à Kinshasa thinks the accident was all but inevitable:
Cet accident était mille fois prévisible. Étant donné l'absence quasi totale d'infrastructures terrestres (route, rail…), l'essentiel des échanges à l'intérieur de la RDC se fait par avions. Pour un pays très pauvres, le trafic aérien est très intense. Il y a des dizaines de petites compagnies privées et donc des centaines de tombeaux dans les airs. Chaque jour, nous voyons des ancêtres surchargés décoller à l'horizontale au dessus des habitations. Ce crash n'est pas le premier… il ne sera pas le dernier
Congolese blogger Alex Engwete observes it can take a disaster to turn the world's attention to the DRC:
CNN montre des images de l'avion carbonisé à Kinshasa. Des images sensationnelles catastrophiques dont raffolent les géants médiatiques… et qui les tirent de leur indifférence systématique de la RDC.
6 comments
The daring pilots of the Congo were profiled in Bono’s Vanity Fair Africa issue (probably the longest story there).
The aircraft are old (and repaired ad hoc) and with the poor state of runways in the huge country, I have to agree with Du Cabiau
Contrary to media and popular belief, the plane was not “old” and was properly maintained.
AN-26GR registered 9Q-COS, serial 88-07, was actually completely overhauled by the manufacturer one year ago.
Proper maintenance was performed during the lapse of one year (almost to the day) spent in the DRC.
I thought that crash just like almost every other crash in Africa was caused by overload ?
I WANT SEE THE VIDEO OF THE LAST CRASH OF LPLANE IN RDC