Congo probes air disaster

Congo's military yesterday investigated how the cargo doors of a Russian-built transport plane burst open in mid-flight, catapulting possibly scores of passengers to their deaths.

Terrified passengers told Reuters yesterday how they had gripped ropes and netting for nearly two hours, their muscles aching, while men, women and children were sucked through the gaping hole at the rear of the Ilyushin-Il 76 jet.

"I saw a soldier cradling a baby and a mother with a baby near the door suddenly just being wrenched into the darkness," said Suzanne Mutelo, 39, who survived the ordeal with her two teenage children.

"We were very frightened and held on for all we were worth," Mutelo told Reuters in Kinshasa. She was returning to Lubumbashi in the southeast of Congo after visiting her father.

Congo's Minister for Defence Irung Awan told Reuters yesterday the authorities were seeking to verify a state media report which said 170 people had disappeared, far higher than an official count of 17 issued early yesterday.

Aviation officials, diplomats and survivors all said well over 100 soldiers and civilians had died. If the 170 tally proved correct it would make the freak incident the worst plane accident in Africa since a 1996 crash off the Comoros Islands.

Western diplomats in touch with Congolese officials told Reuters they believed the death toll was as high as 180.

Information Minister Kikaya Bin Karubi told Reuters yesterday the airforce and army were investigating whether the accident was the result of human error or a mechanical problem.

He said he had no idea how many people had been on board the Ilyushin Il-76 jet, which was ferrying troops from Kinshasa to the Democratic Republic of Congo's second city of Lubumbashi.

Karubi said the plane's cargo doors burst open late on Thursday at about 3,000 metres. Some reports said it happened at 10,000 metres .

Ukraine's Defence Ministry spokesman Konstantin Khyvrenko said yesterday that the jet was owned by the Ukrainian air transport company, a state-owned firm. He said no one was hurt.

But survivors described a harrowing scene. "When we landed the majority of the people had disappeared," Mutelo said, adding that about 200 had boarded the plane.