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The 1996 Air Africa crash occurred on 8 January when an overloaded Zairese Air Africa's Antonov An-32B aircraft, bound for Kahemba Airport, overshot the runway at N'Dolo Airport in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) after failing to take off and ploughed into Kinshasa's Simbazikita street market. Four of the six crew of the aircraft that had been wet leased from Moscow Airways, managed to survive. However, between 225 and 348 fatalities and around 253 serious injuries occurred on the ground. This crash remains the deadliest in African history, and also one with the most ground fatalities of any air disaster in history, superseded only by the intentional crashes of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 in the September 11 attacks.

This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. (September 2018)

1996 Air Africa crash

RA-26222, the aircraft that crashed.
Accident
Date	8 January 1996 (1996-01-08)
Summary	Runway overrun after failed takeoff
Site	N'Dolo Airport Kinshasa, DRC (then Zaire) 4.3295°S 15.318°E / -4.3295; 15.318
Total fatalities	227-348
Total injuries	Approx. 500 (253 serious; est.)
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Antonov An-32B
Operator	Moscow Airways on behalf of Air Africa
Registration	RA-26222
Flight origin	N'Dolo Airport
Destination	Kahemba Airport
Occupants	6
Passengers	0
Crew	6
Fatalities	2
Survivors	4[1]
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities	225–348

Background

After decades of conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, the air transport business is complex and often illegal. As Johan Peleman explained:

The relationship between the charterers, who operate the plane, the shipping agent who organises the delivery for his clients and the company that actually owns the plane, is often very complex. This makes it difficult to see which of the contracting parties is actually responsible for the illegal aspects of the transactions. The Antonov that crashed in Kinshasa in January 1996 was operated by African Air. The company had rented the plane and crew from Scibe CMMJ, the company of Bemba Saolona. Scibe's Belgium based sales agent had leased the plane to the company in Zaïre. The Belgian company in turn had contracted with Moscow Airways.[2]

It has been reported that this flight was carrying weapons to UNITA:

Scibe Airlift, an airline owned by Bemba Saolona and (at least in 1985) Mobutu himself (Forbes, 18 November 1985), was also found to be transporting arms to UNITA when, in January 1996, an Antonov 32 crashed on take-off from Kinshasa en route to Angola, killing an estimated 370 people (Agence France Presse, 10 January 1996). The aircraft and crew, chartered by African Air from Scibe, had, in turn, been leased from Moscow Airways through Scibe's sales agent, Scibe CMMJ, in Ostend (The Washington Post, 21 March 1997).[3]

Crash

While attempting to take off fully fuelled and overloaded from N'Dolo Airport's short runway, the An-32B did not achieve sufficient speed to bring its nose up, yet began to lift. It crashed into the open-air Simbazikita produce market, full of shacks, pedestrians and cars, and its full fuel load ignited. The number of casualties cited varies from 225 (per the manslaughter charges) to 348.[4]

Aftermath

The first injured went to the Mama Yemo Hospital (now Kinshasa General Hospital), which was quickly overwhelmed. Two other hospitals took the additional victims. A worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Vincent Nicod, stated that 217 bodies were found at the market, in addition to 32 more bodies possibly already at morgues within the city.[5]

President Mobutu and Saolona both attended the funeral on 10 January 1996 at the Protestant Cathédrale du Centenaire.[6]

The Russian pilots, Nicolai Kazarin and Andrei Gouskov, were charged and convicted of manslaughter, each receiving the maximum two-year sentence. At trial, they admitted they were using borrowed clearance papers from Scibe Airlift, that they knew the flight was illegal, and that the flight was actually bound for Angola. Scibe Airlift and African Air paid fines of US$1.4 million to the families and the injured.[7]

The underlying hazards of overloaded aircraft overflying densely populated areas were not addressed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and on 4 October 2007 a virtual repeat occurred in the 2007 Africa One's Antonov An-26 crash at Ndjili, Kinshasa's other airport.[8]^{[fact or opinion?]}

References

External links

• J Rupert, Zaïre reportedly selling arms to Angolan ex-rebels, The Washington Post, 21 March 1997.
• Chaos am Himmel ueber Afrika Die Zeit, (May 1996) (in German)
• Bolenge Ngbanzo "La place Type-K 'new look': un paradis pour les chasseurs d'immondices" l'Avenir, 9 July 2008 (in French)
• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
• Crash-Arien^{[permanent dead link]} (mixed en/fr)
• Russian airfax 12 January 1996
• Aftermath of the crash from Associated Press Archive

На других языках

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[de] Flugzeugkatastrophe von Kinshasa

Die Flugzeugkatastrophe von Kinshasa ereignete sich am 8. Januar 1996 um 12:43 Uhr Ortszeit, als eine Antonow An-32B beim Start vom Flughafen Kinshasa-N’Dolo über das Startbahnende hinausschoss und in einen angrenzenden Marktplatz raste. Dieser Unfall ist der bislang schwerste Flugunfall auf dem afrikanischen Festland[1] und nach den Terroranschlägen vom 11. September 2001 der Flugunfall, welcher weltweit die höchste Anzahl von Opfern am Boden forderte.

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- [en] 1996 Air Africa crash

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[fr] Catastrophe de Kinshasa

La catastrophe de Kinshasa ou Crash du marché Type K [Note 2] est un accident resté dans l'histoire comme la deuxième pire catastrophe aérienne du continent africain. Le 8 janvier 1996, un Antonov An-32B ne parvient pas à décoller, en bout de piste de l'aéroport de Ndolo, l'appareil dans son élan poursuit sa course sur le marché de Barumbu à Kinshasa, avant de prendre feu. C'est le plus grave accident aérien de l'aviation civile par le nombre de victimes mortelles au sol (non-passagers)[1].

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[it] Incidente dell'Antonov An-32 di Air Africa del 1996

L'incidente di Air Africa del 1996 si verificò l'8 gennaio, quando un Antonov An-32B di Air Africa, in leasing da Moscow Airways e diretto all'aeroporto di Kahemba, oltrepassò la pista dell'aeroporto di N'Dolo, a Kinshasa, nello Zaire (ora Repubblica Democratica del Congo), dopo non essere riuscito a decollare poiché sovraccarico. Finì nel mercato di Simbazikita street di Kinshasa.[1] Sebbene sopravvissero quattro dei sei membri dell'equipaggio dell'aeromobile, 237 persone a terra persero la vita e circa 253 rimasero gravemente ferite.[2]

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[ru] Катастрофа Ан-32 в Киншасе

Катастрофа Ан-32 в Киншасе — крупная авиационная катастрофа, произошедшая 8 января 1996 года. Российский грузовой самолёт Ан-32Б авиакомпании «Московские воздушные линии (Moscow Airways)» совершал внутренний рейс по маршруту Киншаса—Кахемба, но при разбеге по взлётной полосе аэропорта Киншасы не смог подняться в воздух, выкатился за её пределы и врезался в рынок, который был расположен совсем рядом с ВПП (фактически в центре города). В катастрофе погибли 298 человек — 1 член экипажа самолёта и 297 человек на земле (в других источниках — 237 человек на земле)[1]; ещё 253 человека на земле получили ранения различной степени тяжести.

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