You are in > manchester.com  > News > Aid plane crashes in Congo

International affairs

Aid plane crashes in Congo

02/09/2008

A humanitarian plane carrying 17 people has crashed into a mountain in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations (UN) has said.

Air Serv, which operates the plane, claims there are "no known survivors" from the accident, which occurred north-west of Bukavu on Tuesday morning.

Rescuers are said to have found the 19-seater Beechcrfat aircraft during a helicopter survey of the region but were unable to land.

The plane is thought to have lost contact with ground control after leaving Kingsani.

"The plane was found 15 kilometres (eight miles) northwest of Bukavu airport. There were 15 passengers and two crew on board," Christophe Illemassene, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kinshasa, said.

The circumstances surrounding the accident are still unknown. The weather was reported to have been particularly bad in the south Kivu region on Monday.