On 4 March 2013, a Fokker 50 operated by

Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation (CAA; African Aviation Company), renamed FlyCAA in 2013, is a regional airline from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, based at N'djili Airport in Kinshasa. It offers an extensive network of domestic scheduled pa ...

on a domestic cargo flight from Lodja to

Goma Goma is the capital of North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, next to the Rwandan city of Gisenyi. The lake and the two cities are in the Albertine Rift, the ...

, Democratic Republic of the Congo, crashed in poor weather on approach to

Goma Airport Goma International Airport is an airport serving Goma, a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. History Initially built with a paved 3000 m runway and a large terminal and apron, the airport has not recovered from the 2 ...

. There were nine people on board, of which six were killed. No fatalities were reported on the ground, despite the aircraft crashing into a populated area.

Accident

The aircraft was two minutes from

touching down ''Touching Down'' is the first solo studio album by the drum and bass DJ Roni Size. It was released in 2002 by Full Cycle Records. Critical reception ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' wrote that while "Size still rocks harder than most junglists, he ra ...

at Goma airport on a cargo service from Lodja Airport, west of Goma. At 17:55 local time, the aircraft crashed in an empty lot in the middle of the city. No

distress call A distress signal, also known as a distress call, is an internationally recognized means for obtaining help. Distress signals are communicated by transmitting radio signals, displaying a visually observable item or illumination, or making a soun ...

s were made prior to the crash. There were nine people on board the aircraft, including six airline employees—a crew of five and a security guard—and three passengers. All six employees were killed in the accident. Except for the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, a 46-year-old Russian national named Alexander Bazhenov, the dead were all from the Congo. The Russian

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

to the Democratic Republic of the Congo confirmed that a Russian national was on board.

Aircraft

KLM Cityhopper Fokker 50 PH-LXJ AMS 2006-7-18

The aircraft involved in the accident was a twin-turboprop Fokker 50, powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW125B engines; it first flew in 1992 with registration PH-LXJ. Having serial number 20270, it was delivered to

AirUK AirUK was a wholly privately owned, independentindependent from government-owned corporations regional British airline formed in 1980 as a result of a merger involving four rival UK-based regional airlines. British and Commonwealth (B&C)-own ...

in 1994 and re-registered G-UKTE. This registration was kept following the rebranding of Air UK to

KLM uk KLM uk was the brand name of a British airline subsidiary of KLM, which operated services within the UK and between the UK and the Netherlands using ATR-72, Fokker 50 and Fokker 100 aircraft. KLM uk had its headquarters in the Stansted House ...

in 1998. KLM Cityhopper re-registered the aircraft as PH-LXJ in 2003, and returned it to the lessor in 2010. In March of the same year, it was re-registered 9Q-CBD and delivered to

. The aircraft was 20 years old at the time of the accident.

Aftermath

Following the crash, the Ministry of Transport of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced a re-certification of all airlines having an operator's certificate issued in the country that were subject to a ban in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

References

External links

{{Portal bar, Aviation, Democratic Republic of the Congo Aviation accidents and incidents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Accidents and incidents involving the Fokker 50 Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation crash 2013 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Goma March 2013 events in Africa

Accident

Aircraft

Aftermath

See also

References

External links