A Uganda registered aircraft belonging to Eagle Air has crashed shortly after take-off in Yei town, southwestern South Sudan on Saturday morning, but all 17 passengers and three crew members from Uganda survived, a crew member said.
Pilot Caxton Mukasa told Radio Tamazuj that the plane was heading to Uganda. He explained that the crash was caused by an engine nozzle failure immediately after take-off from the runway in Yei town.
“We were all left shocked when I tried applying take-off gear at the extreme ends of the airstrip while on a high-speed, but unfortunately it failed and I had to break and the front tire burst and we found ourselves off the runway into the bush,” Caxton said.
He pointed out that the passengers on board survived, but some of them sustained minor injuries.
Meanwhile, a passenger who identified himself as Samson called upon the South Sudanese government to investigate the cause of the incident and ban old planes from operations in the country.
“When it ran about three kilometers on the runway and when it was about to take-off, the plane refused to fly and most of the passengers on board were shocked and I tried my best to open the door and pull some people out,” he said.
“Let the government ban old planes from coming into the country because most of the planes are old and they need to be banned from coming to the country,” he added.
Officials at the Civil Aviation Authority could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last month, South Supreme Airlines, a South Sudanese carrier, crash-landed and burned in Wau town, but all 49 passengers and crew survived.
Photo: A Ugandan airplane belonging to Eagle Air crashes shortly after take-off in Yei town on April 1, 2017 (Radio Tamazuj)