Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek has pointed to engine failure as the possible cause of an airplane crash today in South Sudan's capital Juba. Official records show that 18 people were on board but witnesses who visited the crash site say they saw 38 bodies or more.

Ateny Wek called an urgent press confrerence today to give information on the crash even though aviation authorities have not yet come out with the full details on what transpired.

“It will be some time before we establish exactly what has happened. But the information we have this morning at around 8:59 minutes South Sudan local time a Russian-built Antonov 12 registered from Tajikistan and piloted by a crew from Tajikstan that was chartered by Aliet service is the company that is operating the Antonov 12 was taking off from Juba bound for Paloich taking some assorted goods for the commercial purposes,” he said.

However, another official said the crew were Armenians and a Russian, not Tajiks. Ateny said the number of crew were 6 and the passengers were 12 for a total of 18 people on board, 3 of whom survived.

“The plane took off in a very abnormal way and that – the engines, according to an eyewitness, the left engine started to stop as soon as it took off and the other one took off simultaneously and plane started crashing,” he added. “It crashed some few meters before the shore of the river so it did not fall to the river.”

“Now the survivors are only three. Another soldier is found, he is in critical condition and has been taken to hospital. The crew did not survive – all of them,” he said.

There is no indication that the plane might have killed anybody from the ground, he said.

A journalist challenged Ateny Wek about these numbers saying that journalists visited the site of the crash and counted at least 38 dead bodies. The presidential spokesman said this was the information he received from civil aviation authorities. But he hinted that more people may have been on board than reported by the air crew. “The truth is the plane was not supposed to be carrying passengers,” he said.

Stephen Warikozi from the Civil Aviation Authority also spoke to press saying, “Captain reported to the tower that the persons on board is 12 and fuel is enough for five hours and the crew of the aircraft is mixed: five Armenians and one Russians and tonnage of the aircraft is 15.5.”

He said the aircraft registration number was EY-406 and the type of aircraft was Antonov 12-B. But he declined to say why the aircraft crashed saying the investigation had not yet started because they were still in the stage of recovery.

“We have rushed to the site of the crash which is located southeast of Juba International Airport and the actual place is after the river and we have secured the site of the crash and also now we are in stage of recoving the bodies and black box.”

The aviation official was asked by a journalist, “What lesson will the Civil Aviation of South Sudan learn from this mistake?”

Warikozi responded, “This accident is happening anywhere, not only the South Sudan Civil Aviation but you can recently hear that in Egypt what everywhere there is an accident.”

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Dozens killed in fatal plane crash in Juba