JUBA, South Sudan (AP) – A cargo plane carrying an added load of unregistered people crashed Wednesday morning along the banks of the Nile River after taking off from South Sudan’s capital of Juba. The crash killed 36 people and left an infant clinging to life, Sudan authorities said.
The Soviet-made Antonov plane, which had been bound for the Paloich oil fields in Upper Nile state, was registered in Tajikistan and belonged to Allied Services Limited, said Ateny Wek Ateny, a spokesman for South Sudanese President Salva Kiir.
Hours later, the smell of fuel permeated the crash site, 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from Juba’s international airport. Wreckage from the plane was scattered in a bushy area on banks of the Nile with a few homes nearby. Its tail and part of the fuselage remained attached but the plane’s wings, propellers and front were completely smashed.
Thirty-six people were confirmed dead in the crash, according to both South Sudan’s minister for transportation, Kuong Danhier Gatluak, and Maju Hilary of the South Sudan Red Cross. Six of the plane’s crew members – five Armenians and a Russian – were among the dead, said Tigran Mkrtchian, a spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
Gatluak said two passengers were pulled alive from the wreckage, an infant as well as an adult who later died, and the search for more bodies was ongoing.