At least 70 dead in Congo plane crash

GOMA, Congo (Reuters) - More than 70 people were killedwhen a Congolese domestic airliner taking off from the easterncity of Goma crashed into a crowded market district and caughtfire, witnesses and officials said.

At least six people on board -- including the two pilotsand two children -- survived the crash of the Hewa Bora Airwayspassenger jet in Goma, capital of Democratic Republic ofCongo's eastern North Kivu province, the local governor said.It was believed other survivors may also have been pulled out.

More than 45 people were injured in the crash, the latestaviation disaster to hit Congo, a vast central African statethe size of western Europe which is still recovering from a warand has one of the world's worst air safety records.

The Hewa Bora McDonnell Douglas DC-9 was taking off on aflight to the Congolese capital Kinshasa when it slewed intothe teeming market district of Birere, a warren ofsingle-storey shops and stalls which were crowded at that timeof day.

Officials had first identified the aircraft as a Boeing727.

"I was in my seat with my seat belt fastened. There was abig crash. We jumped up and found our way out. We could feelthe fire behind us," said one of the survivors, 51-year-oldFrederic Katemo, who said he scrambled out through the cockpit.

He suffered only singed hair and a bruised leg.

The nose and cockpit section of the airliner was leftlargely intact, jutting into the debris of crushed stalls andshattered houses in a street of the Birere district.

Residents heard a big explosion, which flattened at leastone building, scattering bricks and masonry, and set severalmore on fire. A large plume of smoke rose from the crash site.

"Half of the plane has broken off. There is a fire towardsthe back. People are coming with buckets of water to put outthe fire. The U.N. is here trying to keep back the crowds," awitness at the crash scene said.

North Kivu governor Julien Paluku told Reuters there were79 passengers and six crew on board. "Six people have beensaved, two pilots and four passengers including two children,"he said.

DEADLY AFRICAN SKIES

A Congolese Red Cross official said the death toll wasexpected to rise, but the recovery of bodies was made moredifficult by the fires raging on the ground.

Congolese police and United Nations soldiers, members ofthe U.N. peacekeeping contingent in Congo, struggled to keepback hordes of onlookers who swarmed over the crash site.

Goma airport, located within sight of a nearby volcano, hassuffered several accidents in the past, with planesovershooting the runway and endangering homes built up near theairport.

"We have been waiting for something like this to happen.There have been lots of accidents just behind here at theairport," Serge Ukundji, a conservationist with the FrankfurtZoological Society who lives in Goma, told Reuters. He said hesaw the pilot and co-pilot dragged alive from the crashedplane.

Hewa Bora Airways officials were not immediately availablefor comment.

Last week, the European Union added Congo's Hewa BoraAirways to a list of aviation companies banned from flying inthe 27-nation bloc over safety concerns.

There were eight plane crashes in Democratic Republic ofCongo last year, according to the Geneva-based Aircraft CrashesRecord Office (ACRO).

This included one in the capital Kinshasa in which anAntonov 26 plunged into a crowded neighbourhood, killing morethan 50 people.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says theair accident rate in Africa is six times worse than in the restof the world and calls this an "embarrassment".

Aviation safety experts single out Democratic Republic ofCongo, which is still struggling to recover from a devastating1998-2003 war, as one of the worst offenders. The huge countryonly has a few hundred kilometres (miles) of paved roads.

Passengers and cargo are packed onto ageing planes, oftenSoviet-built, which fly to multiple remote destinations acrossthe former Belgian central African colony.

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say onthe top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)

(Additional reporting by Lubunga Bya'Ombe in Kinshasa,William Schomberg in Brussels, writing by Pascal Fletcher andNick Tattersall; Editing by Stephen Weeks)