Plane Crash Kills 10 In Congo

A Russian-made airplane clipped a tree and slammed into the ground as it approached a landing strip in central Congo, killing 10 of the 11 passengers aboard, officials said.

A propellor on the Antonov 26 hit a treetop as the aircraft made its descent toward a runway 17 miles north of Kisangani, causing the plane to crash, said the president of Kisangani Airlift, which operated the aircraft.

"The pilot surely underestimated the distance between the runway and the plane's altitude," said Rayomon Mokeni.

Four Russian crew members and six Congolese passengers, including women and a student, died in the crash, said Mokeni. One Congolese passenger survived, he said.

Mokeni said that the plane left from the town of Isiro, a few hundred miles northeast of Kisangani, a main city on a bend in the Congo river.

The plane was leased from a company called Aeroworld, said Mokeni.

Many rickety aircraft, often castoffs from old Soviet bloc nations, ply the skies of Congo, a central African nation the size of Western Europe.

Few passable roads traverse Congo after decades of war and corrupt rule, forcing the country's deeply impoverished people to rely on often unsafe boats and planes to move around their country.

In December, 2003, an Antonov 26 plowed into a crowded market at the end of a runway in a northeastern town, killing 33 in the plane and on the ground.