Oct 11, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — A commercial plane in South Sudan’s Mundri county of Western Equatoria state crashed on Saturday, October 10, 2020.
Speaking to media on Saturday evening, Benjamin Bateka, who was a secretary-general in the former Amadi state confirmed to local media that none of the passengers and crew was hurt, saying the plane crashed while trying to take off from the Mundri’s Airstrip.
“No casualties because the plane was not far from the ground when it crashed while taking off,” Benjamin Bateka told local media on Saturday evening.
“The cause of the crash is not yet known.” He added.
Benjamin hopes that a technical team will be dispatched from Juba to Mundri to investigate what might have caused the incident.
“I think the investigation will be from the side of Juba. I think they will send a team tomorrow [Sunday] or after tomorrow [Monday] to investigate what happened. The investigation needs technical people,” he said.
The official does not believe that the cause could have been due to physical factors such the conditions of the airstrip.
“The airstrip is okay, even the planes that carry about 24 or 25 people used to land at the airstrip here. So the airstrip is okay,” Benjamin added.
South Sudan has witnessed several plane crashes in the recent few months.
In August this year, one plane crashed in Kemeru area near Juba and left 8 out 9 people dead, and another plane also crashed in old Fangak that month but the passengers survived with only injuries.
South Sudan is allowing operation of old commercial planes, some of which are out of date or poorly maintained, and that seems to have contributed to death more than what could be mechanical or human error.
