Société Aéro-Service Afrigo is an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

headquartered in

Pointe-Noire Pointe-Noire (; , with the letter d following French spelling standards) is the second largest city in the Republic of the Congo, following the capital of Brazzaville, and an autonomous department and a commune since the 2002 Constitution. B ...

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

. It operates chartered cargo and business passenger flights within Congo and to neighbouring countries out of its base at Pointe-Noire Airport.

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

27 March 2007

History

The airline was established and started operations in 1967 as an air freight transport department of a frozen food company. It later became an independent airline and today is wholly owned by the TAG Light Aviation Department. Since 16 November 2009, Aéro-Service is banned from entering the European Union, along with all other airlines registered in the Republic of the Congo.Information on Aéro-Service at airlineupdate.com

Fleet

As of May 2011, the Aéro-Service fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

*In June 1981, an Aéro-Service

Britten-Norman Islander The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander is a British light utility aircraft and regional airliner designed and originally manufactured by Britten-Norman of the United Kingdom. Still in production, the Islander is one of the best-selling commercial airc ...

(

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

TN-ADS) suffered a crash landing and was subsequently written off. *On 11 March 1994, an Aéro-Service

Swearingen Merlin The Swearingen Merlin or the Fairchild Aerospace Merlin is a pressurized, twin turboprop business aircraft first produced by Swearingen Aircraft, and later by Fairchild at a plant in San Antonio, Texas. Development The Merlin was an evolution ...

(registered TN-ADP) was damaged beyond repair in a crash landing at Pointe Noire Airport, following a chartered flight from

Port-Gentil Port-Gentil () or Mandji is the second-largest city of Gabon, and it is a leading seaport. It is the center of Gabon's petroleum and timber industries. The city is located on a delta island in the Ogooue delta. Nearby Cape Lopez is Gabon's weste ...

with 4 passengers and 2 crew members on board. Upon landing approach, the landing gear failed to deploy, and the pilots did not manage to execute a

go-around In aviation, a go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft that is on Final_approach_(aeronautics), final approach or has already touched down. A go-around can either be initiated by the pilot flying or requested by air traffic control for var ...

, but belly-landed on the runway. *On 23 December 2005, an Aéro-Service

Antonov An-24 The Antonov An-24 (Russian/ Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-24) (NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau and manufactured by the Kyiv ...

(registered ER-AZX), which was leased from

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, was substantially damaged when it ran off the runway upon landing. *On 25 January 2008, an Aéro-Service Antonov An-12BP (registered EK-11660) suffered a brake failure whilst taxiing at Pointe Noire Airport, so that it ran into a parked Boeing 727-247 (9L-LEF). Both aircraft were damaged beyond economic repair. *On 19 June 2010 at ca 10:00 local time, an Aéro-Service

CASA C-212 Aviocar The CASA C-212 Aviocar is a turboprop-powered STOL medium cargo aircraft designed and built by Spanish aircraft manufacturer Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA). It is designed for use by both civil and military operators. The C-212 was ...

(registered TN-AFA) crashed near

Djoum Djoum is a town in South Region, Cameroon. History The first inhabitants of modern-day Djoum were the Baka peoples. The rural municipality was formed in 1952. The town was later divided in 1995 in three entities to form municipalities of Mi ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, killing all nine passengers and the two crew members on board. . * On 30 November 2012, an Aéro-Service Ilyushin Il-76T on a cargo flight from

Pointe Noire Pointe-Noire (; , with the letter d following French spelling standards) is the second largest city in the Republic of the Congo, following the capital of Brazzaville, and an autonomous Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and ...

Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...

crashed during landing short of runway 5L at Maya-Maya Airport in Brazzaville in bad weather, in a residential area. All six crew members, five of them from

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

, one police officer on board the aircraft, and 26 people on the ground were killed, and 14 people on the ground were injured.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aero-Service Airlines of the Republic of the Congo Airlines established in 1967 1967 establishments in the Republic of the Congo