JUBA – A passenger plane being operated in South Sudan by Air Service Uganda has again crash-landed in Akobo County of the country’s Jonglei state, according to the state minister of roads and bridges, James Mawich Makuay.
The incident, Hon. Mawich said, occurred on Saturday, just one week after a similar incident occurred in Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, that did not kill anyone among the passengers.
“Yesterday there was a plane going to Akobo. The plane crash landed after missing the runway, but thank God that none of those passengers has been injured or killed,” the senior government official told Sudans Post this morning from Bor.
He said the plane was carrying fourteen (14) people, twelve (12) passengers, and two (2) crewmembers when the incident happened.
The senior government official further said a government team of investigation was being dispatched to Akobo to investigate the incident saying the increasing number of similar incident is a concern to the Jonglei state government.
“This is a very big concern for the government of Jonglei state and we have send a team of experts to visit the Akobo airstrip and to have discussion with authorities there and find out ways to improve the situations of airports and to also avoid similar incidents in the future,” the official added.
The incident is the third of its kind in South Sudan within the current month. Early this month an Antonov plane carrying examination papers crash-landed in Abyei Administrative Area killing none of the people on board.
Last week, a passenger plane operated by the Ugandan company also missed the runway at Bor airstrip, but killed none of those people who were on board.