Cargo plane crashes in Juba, killing at least 37 people

The Antonov 12 cargo plane, registered EY-406, was destroyed after impacting terrain shortly after takeoff from Juba Airport, South Sudan, during the Initial Climb (ICL) phase. It had its first flight in 1971.

The aircraft was heading for Paloich in Upper Nile State and operated by a Juba-based logistics company, Allied Services Limited, which provides air charter services mostly for non-government organisations delivering aid across the country.

At least 37 people were confirmed to have been killed. However, it was not immediately possible to verify how many people were aboard and how many were killed on the ground.

Initial reports stated there were five crew members and seven passengers on board. Presidential spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, told Reuters the plane was carrying 18 people, including the six foreign crew members. Eye Radio Juba stated that the Red Cross recovered 37 bodies with three bodies still trapped under the wreckage.

The plane, which ASL leased from Asia Airways, crashed in an area of mango forest that hugs the river banks, an area inhabited by people in bamboo and mud houses who carry out fishing activities or cultivate crops along the banks. Footage of the aftermath showed debris strewn over a large area, a fuselage sticking out from a cluster of mango trees while a detached tail-fin lay in the river bank.

Ateny confirmed that 18 people were on board at the time of the crash. He said that a member of the crew of Russian origin and a child survived but did not give a number of those killed or survivors.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an official of the company said the Antonov was carrying tonnes of food stuffs destined for Upper Nile State.

“A cargo plane heading to Paloich in Upper Nile crashed just 800 metres from Juba International Airport runway,” United Nations Radio Miraya reported.

The AFP news agency reported that the Russian diplomatic mission in neighbouring Uganda was in touch with South Sudanese officials after it emerged that the deceased included a Russian crew of five members.

The cause of the accident has not yet been established but since the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, South Sudan’s airspace been filled with commercial and humanitarian aircrafts, many which are older models or which are rarely serviced.

Desperation often forces travellers to use cargo planes squatting or seated on bare floors or between piles of cargo to move from their war-torn upcountry homes to Juba and back. Domestic flight passengers report traveling in old planes through necessity, while others tell of domestic animals, mainly goats, transported in the back of passenger cabins.

Meanwhile, there are great gaps in legislation for the country’s fledgling aviation industry, not least because of the political emergency caused by ongoing fighting which has killed tens of thousands in the country since late 2013.

South Sudan’s road network is inadequate, especially during the rainy seasons when roads are generally impassable, leaving travellers with no option than to try to get aboard one of the often risky flights.

Private and mostly foreign-operated airline companies provide passenger or cargo scheduled and chartered flights for ordinary citizens and humanitarian agencies delivering aid across the country.