Congo Plane Crashes at End of Runway and Bursts Into Flames
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A Congolese jetliner with about 85 people on board failed to take off Tuesday from an airport in this eastern town, slamming into a busy market neighborhood at the end of the runway and bursting into flames, officials said.
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The tragedy underscored the dangers of plane travel in Congo, which has experienced more fatal crashes than any other African country since 1945, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
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The plane was operated by the private Congolese company, Hewa Bora, and was headed to the central city of Kisangani, then the capital, Kinshasa.
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Employees at World Vision said the plane “failed to leave the ground,” plowing instead “through wooden houses and shops in the highly populated Birere market.”
The plane appeared to have been “totally flattened” by the impact, said Rachel Wolff, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for the organization who has been in contact with her colleagues in Congo.
A former pilot who survived the crash, Dunia Sindani, gave a similar account in an interview broadcast over a local U.N. radio station. The plane suffered a problem in one of its wheels—possibly a flat tire—and did not gain the strength to lift off, Sindani said.
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Just last Friday, the European Union added Hewa Bora Airways to its blacklist of airlines banned from flying in the EU, without specifying a reason.
On Tuesday, European Union spokesman Michele Cercone said she had no information on Hewa Bora specifically but she said that all airlines based in Congo are banned from EU air space.
“That is because there is a general lack of effective control by the civil aviation authorities there to monitor and maintain minimum technical standards” for airplanes, Cercone said.
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(Posted on April 15, 2008)
Comments
“A former pilot who survived the crash, Dunia Sindani, gave a similar account in an interview broadcast over a local U.N. radio station. The plane suffered a problem in one of its wheels—possibly a flat tire—and did not gain the strength to lift off, Sindani said.”
A flat tire? Didn’t anyone do a walk-around?
A few years ago AR ran a lengthy article on how South African Airways was going to hell. On one lengthy flight the toilets simply stopped working. The toilet is probably one of the least complex things on a commercial airliner. If SAA couldn’t keep that functioning, what about the engines, avionics, and hydralics?
If you are flying to Africa take an American or European carrier. It’s a lot more expensive, but a world safer.
Posted by Howard Fezell at 7:35 PM on April 15
I thought all African airlines were more or less run by Europeans and South African Whites. I don’t believe Africans should be running airlines by themselves.
Tom Iron…
Posted by Tom Iron... at 7:52 PM on April 15
Compared to these airlines in the Congo, Delta looks like the greatest airline ever.
Posted by Howard in Las Vegas at 8:18 PM on April 15
“That is because there is a general lack of effective control by the civil aviation authorities there to monitor and maintain minimum technical standards” for airplanes, Cercone said.
And they don’t know how to fly airplanes, either.
Posted by kitty at 8:41 PM on April 15
Well. That’s one way to stem the tide of immigrants from africa.
Posted by at 8:43 PM on April 15
You would think that with 1,100 employees and only 13 planes, 12 now..well accidents do happen. I’m sure there is racism involved, you see these are US made planes which are primarily made by whites and obviously if the planes had been made by blacks, they would be more familiar with their maintenance requirements and such things.
Clearly punitive reparations are in order to assure that it doesn’t happen again. Obama will fix things.
Posted by professor at 8:44 PM on April 15
HEY, the EU is now an officially racist anti-black organisation, someone get Al Sharpton over here.
Posted by at 8:48 PM on April 15
I heard that those planes have been unsafe for like ages…..the rubber bands must have rotted on them …finally!!
Posted by lydia at 9:28 PM on April 15
Dodgy activity flying around in Africa now, especially South Africa where experienced and well qualified technical staff have been “affirmative actioned”. Quantas (Australian airline) and other Western type airlines have benefited though from the recruitment of top class servicing and other engineers who just happen to be white, the reason they have been fired.
Posted by Brian Deller at 11:37 PM on April 15
I understand that many if not all of the major carriers have outsourced much of their maintenance to other countries; such places as latin america and asia. I have been hearing something about landing gear being an issue.
Posted by Drew at 8:24 AM on April 16
Sorta makes you get a better grasp on the term, “afro engineering” doesn’t it? Notice they said, “a former pilot who survived the crash said—-“. Was he flying the plane with no license? Reminds me of the phrase “Yeah, and I’m a black jet pilot”.
Posted by The Old Sage at 11:08 AM on April 16
It is a crying shame we can not convince liberals who think everyone is “equal” to fly African air carriers.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 1:07 PM on April 16
“A flat tire? Didn’t anyone do a walk-around?”
As Steve Sailer recently points out:
“The biggest problem black voters face, as shown by Florida in 2000, is that they tend to botch up their ballots more often than other groups—because they have weaker average ability to follow directions. If Florida blacks had managed to fill out their ballots in a usable fashion at the same rate as Florida whites, Al Gore would have become President. But black incompetence is not a civil rights issue, it’s a human capital issue.”
http://vdare.com/sailer/080413_obama.htm
“THE CASE OF THE UNCOUNTED BALLOTS
In the days following the 2000 presidential election in Florida, million of words were written to analyze the result, but few were necessary. In this issue, Prodigy chronicles a remarkable visit to his friend and mentor, wherein Mentor evaluates the minimum IQ needed to cast a proper ballot for every voting system used in Florida. From these, the true winner is revealed, as is the margin of victory.
http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/elec2000.htm
Posted by at 1:56 PM on April 16
Brian Deller at 11.37 pm on April 15.. That should read QANTAS, there is no letter ‘U’ in the title. Queensland And Northern Territories Air Services. Strewth! Drew at 8.24 am on April 16.. this incident was a take-off issue, not a landing. Congo gained independence on 15th August 1960, not 1945. An aircraft toilet is really quite complex in operation and a failure could result in total decompression of the entire cabin. The latest european built massive aircraft are totally non-smoking but all seats are still fitted with ashtrays because american regulations will not permit these planes to enter USA airspace without them. How backward and primitive is that?? Reasoning and comments anyone??
Posted by Yorkshireman at 2:42 PM on April 16
In calculating the amount of reparations, we need to factor in their share of the several trillions of dollars of welfare benefits paid over the last fifty years, and the cost of damage done in rioting and loting, and in other individual crimes committed by those descendants of slaves. After which, the total might well turn out to be “reverse reparations”.
Posted by Machifer at 5:22 PM on April 16
Yet again we see Africans’ lack of planning-ahead — this time in the form of a lackadaisical attitude toward aviation safety. As another poster has pointed out, wouldn’t even the most cursory pre-takeoff inspection catch something as obvious as a flat tire (if that was indeed the problem)?
And here’s MORE evidence of a foresight-deficit: do smart planners build runways at the edge of highly-populated residential areas and markets?
Posted by The Incredible Shrinking White Man at 5:52 PM on April 16
If I was to see a black pilot on a plane, I would NEVER set foot on it. I don’t trust them as having the competence or intelligence to handle such a skilled activity as flying a commercial airliner.
George Manuelian
Atherton, CA
Posted by George Manuelian at 6:54 PM on April 16
Another crash in the Congo…par for the course in a country, indeed a continent where nothing works. Everything that does half way function is something the big bad white colonialist
exploiters left behing 50 years ago. Since then it has been a spiral into tribal warfare, disease, corruption and poverty.
Africa has indeed become African
Posted by at 8:14 PM on April 16
Yorkshireman:
I was referring to other instances when talking about landing gear. My thinking was that maybe some part or mechanism integral to landing happened to fail. Speaking in general, the concern I expressed was that the undercarriages of our wonderful jet aircrafts are not being properly maintained. I have heard that takeoffs and landings are the most dangerous part of air travel. I would much rather have “primitive,” “backward” white people doing the maintenance than people who once thought aircraft were beasts that flew.
Posted by Drew at 5:17 AM on April 17
“If I was to see a black pilot on a plane, I would NEVER set foot on it. I don’t trust them as having the competence or intelligence to handle such a skilled activity as flying a commercial airliner.”
Not necessarily; Chicago used to have a weatherman (NBC-WMAQ-TV), Jim Tillman, who was also an airline pilot. According to someone I knew who actually saw him as their plane pilot, he is EXTREMELY black in skin coloration. I believe he still acts as a consultant for Channel 5 on aviation issues.
Posted by at 9:13 AM on April 17
Note that the leftist AP reporter wants his readers to believe that it is the aircraft that is at fault and not the pilots who are crashing.
Too bad they can’t designate him as the “travelling reporter” on the Congo airlines to go along on their remaining destinations in order to update his stories.
When they run out of airplanes will it be due to racism?
Posted by at 5:45 PM on April 17
I see this as just another step in sub-Saharan Africa’s glacial-paced reversion and regression to its natural pre-colonial past.
Posted by at 11:48 PM on April 17
The latest european built massive aircraft are totally non-smoking but all seats are still fitted with ashtrays because american regulations will not permit these planes to enter USA airspace without them. How backward and primitive is that?? Reasoning and comments anyone??
Posted by Yorkshireman at 2:42 PM on April 16
If this is correct, then perhaps ashtrays are still required because (a) there might be a smoker on board who cannot restrain himself and illegally lights up, then requiring a place to extinguish his cig without starting a fire; or (b) there might be a very important dignitary on board, and the smoking rules are set aside temporarily to make his/her trip more comfortable; or (c) this is a bureaucratic oversight which will be noticed and changed at some point.
Posted by at 2:21 AM on April 22