A JUDICIAL inquiry was set up yesterday to establish the cause of Zaire's worst aviation disaster after a cargo aircraft crashed into a crowded market in the capital, Kinshasa, killing at least 250 people.
Four Russian crew members miraculously escaped the crash itself and the vengeance of an angry mob that trailed them to a city clinic. Two other crew members - a Ukrainian and a Zairean - were missing, Zaire's state prosecutor said.
"A judicial inquiry has been started to establish who is responsible," the prosecutor, Mr Mukenge Bisumbule, said, adding that a preliminary report was expected later today.
"It did not even get its nose up," said one airport employee on the scene. "It was going as fast it could but didn't even manage to take off. When it put on its reverse engines it was too late."
Other witnesses said the plane gained a little height before falling on to the runway again, ploughing across the runway limits and into the market until its engines caught fire. Several market stalls were also set alight.
The government, declaring a three-day period of mourning, ordered all cargo planes registered in Zaire grounded until they pass compulsory technical tests. Cargo flights to Angola had also been banned, the information minister announced.
"The aircraft tried to take off but it only got a few metres off the ground, then it disappeared and there was an explosion," said Mr Gothie Mukoka, who was at the airport yesterday when the plane took off.
A Zairean air force colonel who was also there said the aircraft appeared to be overloaded and unable to gain altitude.
"The crew have been kept for their own safety. Crowds gathered outside the clinic where they were being treated. The crowds tried to break in to avenge the deaths," Mr Mukenge said.
The doctor who treated three of, the four Russians said they suffered only minor injuries.
Yesterday's crash of the Antonov-32 belonging to a private Zairean firm, African Air, recalled the death of 141 people when another Zairean plane came down in Angola in December. The road network in Zaire has broken down along with the economy, which is in a shambles following years of neglect, corruption and mismanagement. Private airline companies have mushroomed as the most viable means of transportation in the vast Central African country.
Pilots working for licensed airlines in Zaire say some crews are paid "bonuses" to take off while overloaded, or for making "sensitive" flights to Angola.
By Jim Cusack,
Security Correspondent