Wreckage of Australian Mining Plane Found in Congo
- 14 years ago
The remains of nine or ten bodies were found in the wreckage of a plane carrying senior Australian mining executives in the jungle of Congo Republic. No details are yet available for what caused the crash.
The plane that went missing in the Republic of Congo carrying senior Australian mining executives has been found. Cameroon’s Minister of Communications Issa Tchiroma Bakary says search teams retrieved the remains of the nine or ten victims at the crash site on Monday.
[Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon Communications Minister]: (English)
“…between nine and 10 bodies have been already retrieved. I guess that they have already retrieved the black box of the plane and it is impossible to tell you exactly the reason why this plane crash has taken place. They need to do an examination of the black box in order to tell you what happened at the meantime.”
The 11 passengers of the private plane included Australian mining magnate Ken Talbot, one of Australia's richest men, and five executives from the Australian mining firms Sundance Resources, Gindalbie and Western Areas.
The private CASA C212 propeller plane crashed approximately 6 miles inside the Congolese border with Cameroon.
Two British, two French and one American were also onboard the aircraft.
Aviation officials lost contact with the plane on Saturday about an hour after it took off from Yaounde en route to Yangadou in the northwest of Congo Republic.
International companies routinely use private aircrafts in the dense tropical forests of central Africa, as the lack of public flight connections otherwise make air travel next to impossible.
The plane that went missing in the Republic of Congo carrying senior Australian mining executives has been found. Cameroon’s Minister of Communications Issa Tchiroma Bakary says search teams retrieved the remains of the nine or ten victims at the crash site on Monday.
[Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon Communications Minister]: (English)
“…between nine and 10 bodies have been already retrieved. I guess that they have already retrieved the black box of the plane and it is impossible to tell you exactly the reason why this plane crash has taken place. They need to do an examination of the black box in order to tell you what happened at the meantime.”
The 11 passengers of the private plane included Australian mining magnate Ken Talbot, one of Australia's richest men, and five executives from the Australian mining firms Sundance Resources, Gindalbie and Western Areas.
The private CASA C212 propeller plane crashed approximately 6 miles inside the Congolese border with Cameroon.
Two British, two French and one American were also onboard the aircraft.
Aviation officials lost contact with the plane on Saturday about an hour after it took off from Yaounde en route to Yangadou in the northwest of Congo Republic.
International companies routinely use private aircrafts in the dense tropical forests of central Africa, as the lack of public flight connections otherwise make air travel next to impossible.