Deadly Air Disaster in Congo Is Probed

Congo’s military investigated on Saturday how the cargo doors of a transport plane burst open in flight, dropping passengers to their deaths, as dispute over the details of the incident continued.

Terrified survivors said they had gripped ropes and netting for nearly two hours, their muscles aching, while men, women and children were sucked through the gaping opening at the rear of the Russian-built 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 with her two teenage children. “We were very frightened and held on for all we were worth.”

Defense Minister Irung Awan said authorities were seeking to verify a state media report that said 170 people had disappeared, far higher than an official count of 17 issued early Saturday. An airport official said the exact figure could be difficult to determine because of an incomplete passenger list.

Congolese military helicopters were deployed Friday to search for bodies near the city of Mbuji-Mayi.

Aviation officials, diplomats and survivors all said well over 100 soldiers and civilians had died. But in Kiev, Ukraine, Defense Ministry spokesman Konstantin Khyvrenko said no one was hurt on the jet, owned by the Ukrainian air transport company, a state-owned firm.

“Neither the people, nor the cargo, nor the plane itself were hurt or damaged,” Khyvrenko said.

Closer to the scene, however, survivors described a harrowing ordeal.

Police Lt. Ilunga Mambaza, at a military hospital in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, described mass panic in the plane’s hold, crammed with people and cargo, when the huge bay door at the rear suddenly opened.

“I fell down and lots of boxes covered me,” Mambaza said. “Lots of my colleagues were sucked out by the wind. I don’t know how many, because I fainted.”

The flight crew returned the plane to Kinshasa, 45 minutes after the flight began. Only about 100 people returned safely of an estimated 350 aboard, Mambaza said. His was the largest known estimate of the number of passengers.

“People and boxes were crashing into the sides of the plane. Some of them were badly injured. Some on the head, some on the arms,” Mutelo said at her father’s home in Kinshasa. “When we landed the majority of the people had disappeared.” She thought about 200 people had boarded the plane.

Information Minister Kikaya Bin Karubi said the air force and army were investigating whether the accident was the result of human error or a mechanical problem. He said the jet was ferrying troops from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi.

Karubi said the plane’s cargo doors burst open late Thursday about 10,000 feet, though some reports said it happened at 10,000 meters, about 33,000 feet.

People in Africa often travel on modified cargo planes that have few seats, leaving most passengers to cram in among their belongings in the rear of the aircraft.