allAfrica.com: Congo-Kinshasa: Crash Revives Debate Over Air Safety (Page 1 of 1)

Fourteen days after the crash of a DC-9 aircraft in the city of Goma, North Kivu province, eastern DR Congo, very few details have been made available about the real causes of the tragedy.

The aircraft, belonging to the Hewa Bora Airways Company, based in Kinshasa, crashed just before taking off at Goma airport on April 15 around 2:30 pm, killing more than 50 people. It exploded in a crowed commercial area of the city where people generally sell food stuffs. It broke in two before catching fire.

According to the pilot who survived the crash, the left engine exploded as the aircraft was taxiing for take off and the entire aircraft was destabilized. It seems that one of the left tyres exploded as well. Many passengers were seriously injured while some were killed by the fire.

Most of the victims were on the ground, among the vendors. The area of Birere where the crash occurred is located in the straight axis of the airport runway but such an accident is the first one to be so catastrophic since the airport was built in the fifties. The crash has revives debate on the security conditions at the airport.

The runway length has been shorted by the lava from the Nyiragongo volcano eruption of January 2002.

Since then, the runway has not been rehabilitated despite statements about the intention of the government to have it rehabilitated. Currently, aircraft use only 2,000 metres of the runway instead of 3,000 metres.

According to Hewa Bora Airways officials, the DC-9 is the biggest aircraft for such a distance and most of the air companies exploiting the airport of Goma use this type of aircraft or smaller ones.

The key question is why this airport has not been rehabilitated until now despite the fact that Goma airport is intensively used by various companies.

According to Mr Mwando Simba, the DRC minister of Transportation, instructions have been given recently by the government to rehabilitate the runway and the whole airport.

Political disturbances

Goma airport could have been rehabilitated much earlier but due to political disturbances in the North Kivu province, the central government was not able to undertake any rehabilitation works, the minister said. Rehabilitating the runway means cleaning all the lava "mountains" on the runway. Which is not so simple.

In fact, the runway of the Goma airport needed a complete rehabilitation a long time ago, even before the Nyiragongo eruption.

During the Rwanda war in 1994, the United Nations used the airport for humanitarian flights in order to help Rwandan refugees. Lots of big and heavy Soviet made planes destroyed the runaway but rehabilitation work has not been undertaken despite numerous promises.

In 1999, during the rebellion backed by Rwanda, a DRC millionaire called Katebe Katoto offered to rehabilitate the runaway but the money he gave took an unknown destination. Till then, the airport remained in so "technical worst conditions." According to scientific studies, the cost of the rehabilitation work was estimated at around three million dollars (Sh189 million).

This drama in the city of Goma occurs less than six months after a similar accident in Kinshasa, the capital city of the country where a Russian-made Antonov 26 private aircraft crashed in Kimbaseke district, in the popular Kinshasa suburb, killing 50.

The then minister of Transportation, Mr Henri Kuseyo, had to resign from his post. The Parliament is currently undertaking investigations in order to establish responsibilities in the accident.

Meanwhile, after the Goma crash, Hewa Bora Airways promised to financially compensate the victims but according to the director general, Mr Stavros Papanoiaou, a Greek born in Katanga province, Eastern DRC, the disbursement will take a while because the company is waiting for the results of the investigations. Nevertheless, Mr Stavros Papanoiaou told reporters that his company sent $15 million (Sh930 million) to the rescue teams in Goma as a humanitarian contribution.

Meanwhile, Goma, an emergent city of around 700,000 inhabitants, remains deeply traumatised over the crash. People are very angry with government officials.

Goma is hardly emerging from the trauma caused by the eruption of Nyiragongo volcano which practically destroyed the entire city in 2002.

The crash occurred when people are trying to reconstruct the city. Curiously they use the same volcanic lava as material to lay foundations.

The airport of the city of Goma is the third most important airport in the DRC in terms of trade and day-to-day traffic after those of Kinshasa and Lubumbashi.

It is one of a dozen of the international standard airports constructed in the eighties during Marshall Mobutu Sese Seko's regime and serves the entire north-east of the country, from the cities of Bukavu, South Kivu province to Bunia in the Oriental province.

The country does not have a government owned air company since the death of "Air Zaire" during the Marshall Mobutu's regime in the late eighties. The national Air Company which had some 10 big aircraft including two DC-10 and one Boeing 747 collapsed because of mismanagement, according to Captain Baudouin Rudahindwa a formal Air Zaire pilot.

Currently only private companies are offering air travel all over the country. The union of DRC pilots always complains about the social conditions in private companies.

The national Air Company "Air Zaire" trained lots of pilots and cabin crews. When the company collapsed, the pilots and all the personnel had no other choice than joining the private companies where the bosses give preference to profit than to security.

Hewa Bora Airways was the unique air company and had an experienced a female pilot. Ms Gelda was working as a co-pilot on the doomed DC-9. She is among the lucky persons who survived the crash.

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