10 killed on minibus after plane overshoots runway in Ghana
Source: Agencies |
June 4, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
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AN investigation has been launched after a cargo plane overshot a runway at the international airport in Ghana's capital, Accra, on Saturday, and slammed through a fence, killing 10 people on a minibus.
"What we know for now is that it was raining at the time and the plane landed in a pool of water and that created some challenges to the pilot," Doreen Owusu Fianko, managing director of the Ghana Airports Company, told reporters.
The plane, which had taken off from Lagos in Nigeria, failed to stop at the end of the runway and crashed into a taxi cab and the minibus on a nearby street.
Fianko said the plane was carrying general goods including textiles, perfumes and clothing from Nigeria to the Ivory Coast via Accra.
She said airport equipment failure had been discounted as a cause of the crash, since the airport had the latest navigation equipment.
Ghana's president, John Atta Mills, visited the four plane crew members, who had survived the crash and were receiving treatment at the airport clinic.
Kotoka International Airport sits near newly built high-rise buildings and hotels. Television pictures showed the Boeing 727-200 lying across a road with its tail damaged as the flight crew jumped off to receive help from emergency responders.
Police and soldiers quickly cordoned off the neighborhood.
Billy Anaglate, a spokesman for the Ghana Fire Service, confirmed that all 10 passengers in the minibus were killed on impact.
"At the landing it was short of the boundary, and it went off onto the roadside," Anaglate said.
"... (The plane) broke the barrier and went onto the road and hit the vehicle and unfortunately in the vehicle everyone ended up dying. The poor people were killed."
Fianko said operations at the airport had returned to normal after the crash.
Witnesses said that the plane was labeled as belonging to cargo company Allied Air. The name and symbols on the aircraft matched those of the Nigerian company based out of Lagos.
Telephone numbers for the company in London, Lagos and the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt rang unanswered on Saturday night.
Ghana, a nation of more than 25 million people in West Africa, has not had a major airplane crash in recent years.
The last air emergency the country had was in June 2006, when a TAAG Linhas Aereas De Angola flight to Sao Tome hit birds during takeoff.
The plane landed safely and none of the 28 people onboard was injured.
Ghana's Vice President John Dramani Mahama told aviation officials on Saturday: "I urge you to conduct preliminary investigations as early as possible. And no early conclusions should be drawn to the cause of the accident."
"What we know for now is that it was raining at the time and the plane landed in a pool of water and that created some challenges to the pilot," Doreen Owusu Fianko, managing director of the Ghana Airports Company, told reporters.
The plane, which had taken off from Lagos in Nigeria, failed to stop at the end of the runway and crashed into a taxi cab and the minibus on a nearby street.
Fianko said the plane was carrying general goods including textiles, perfumes and clothing from Nigeria to the Ivory Coast via Accra.
She said airport equipment failure had been discounted as a cause of the crash, since the airport had the latest navigation equipment.
Ghana's president, John Atta Mills, visited the four plane crew members, who had survived the crash and were receiving treatment at the airport clinic.
Kotoka International Airport sits near newly built high-rise buildings and hotels. Television pictures showed the Boeing 727-200 lying across a road with its tail damaged as the flight crew jumped off to receive help from emergency responders.
Police and soldiers quickly cordoned off the neighborhood.
Billy Anaglate, a spokesman for the Ghana Fire Service, confirmed that all 10 passengers in the minibus were killed on impact.
"At the landing it was short of the boundary, and it went off onto the roadside," Anaglate said.
"... (The plane) broke the barrier and went onto the road and hit the vehicle and unfortunately in the vehicle everyone ended up dying. The poor people were killed."
Fianko said operations at the airport had returned to normal after the crash.
Witnesses said that the plane was labeled as belonging to cargo company Allied Air. The name and symbols on the aircraft matched those of the Nigerian company based out of Lagos.
Telephone numbers for the company in London, Lagos and the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt rang unanswered on Saturday night.
Ghana, a nation of more than 25 million people in West Africa, has not had a major airplane crash in recent years.
The last air emergency the country had was in June 2006, when a TAAG Linhas Aereas De Angola flight to Sao Tome hit birds during takeoff.
The plane landed safely and none of the 28 people onboard was injured.
Ghana's Vice President John Dramani Mahama told aviation officials on Saturday: "I urge you to conduct preliminary investigations as early as possible. And no early conclusions should be drawn to the cause of the accident."
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