17 Bodies Recovered from Crash Wreckage in Congo

On Thursday, Sept. 4, 200, searchers recovered 17 bodies from the site in eastern Congo where a Beechcraft 1900 had crashed three days previously. The plane, a member of the same family as the Swiss Air Force Beechcraft 1900D in this photograph, was on an aid flight, carrying seven U.N. workers. Credit: Adrian Pingstone

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A team of U.N. peacekeepers lowered by helicopter to a remote plane crash site in eastern Congo on Thursday recovered all 17 bodies from a humanitarian flight that crashed four days ago, a U.N. spokesman said.

The wreckage of the plane is strewn over two facades of a forested mountain nine miles (15 kilometers) northwest of the airstrip at Bukavu where it had been due to land, U.N. spokesman Lt. Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich said.

Of the 15 passengers on board, seven worked for the U.N. The rest were employed by aid groups, including Handicapped International and Medecins Sans Frontieres. They include French, Canadian, Indian and Congolese nationals.

The 10 peacekeepers found 16 bodies on one face of the mountain and went to a second face to find the 17th, Dietrich said. The black box flight recorder was also recovered, he said.

The Beechcraft 1900 aircraft, on an aid flight that originated in the capital, Kinshasa, lost contact with the Bukavu air tower Monday as it descended to land. It had made several stops, and the last takeoff was from Kisangani, 450 miles (725 kilometers) southeast of Bukavu.

Its wreckage was spotted on Tuesday on the mountain ridge.

Heavy fog prevented a rescue helicopter from reaching the site until Thursday, Dietrich said.

Dietrich said rescuers believe the plane did not crash into the mountain as previously thought, but rather slammed across it, because the bodies were found in relatively good condition. "It's possible that their death was not instantaneous," he explained.

The crew is transporting the dead back to Bukavu, which is 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) northeast of Kinshasa. The flight recorder will be analyzed for clues to the cause of the crash.

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