South Sudan: Many dead after passenger plane crashes in river

At least 19 people died in South Sudan when a small aircraft carrying passengers from Juba International Airport to the city of Yirol crashed on Sunday.

State Information Minister Taban Abel Aguek told Anadolu news agency that three people, including one child and a co-pilot, were rescued from the crash.

Aguek said 22 people were on board the 19-seat plane. He said authorities were investigating the cause of Sunday’s crash.

“We have not yet established full details,” Aguek told AFP news agency. “When it arrived the weather was so foggy and when it tried to land it crashed.”

One of the survivors, an Italian doctor working with a charity, was in stable condition and flown to Juba having undergone surgery in Yirol.

Anglican Bishop of Yirol, Simon Adut, was confirmed among the dead, according to Aguek.

The United Nations radio station Radio Miraya also reported there were only three survivors and posted a picture on its Twitter account of the twisted wreckage of the plane submerged in water.

Several crashes have occurred in war-torn South Sudan in recent years.

In 2015, 36 people were killed when a Soviet-era Antonov plane crashed just after take-off from Juba.

In 2017, 37 people had a miraculous escape after their plane hit a fire truck on a runway in northwestern Wau before bursting into flames.