CNN News DC-9 was operated by Congolese carrier Hewa Bora Airways which was just banned from operating within Europe on April 11/08.
Early reports are; The aircraft reportedly suffered a tire burst on take-off run at high speed. The take-off was aborted but the pilots were unable to prevent an overrun. The aircraft ran off the airport boundary into nearby village of Birere before it broke apart and caught fire.
Reporting 5 survivors of 94 on board???
Apparently at time of accident, the current registration was 9Q-CHN.
Aircraft was delivered to Eastern Airlines as N992EA in August 1977.
Later leased to TWA, and Allegiant as N401EA.
Sold to Hewa Bora in 2005 as 3D-BOA/S9-DBH/9Q-CHN.
Reported as S9-DBH at time of accident???
Sad, I worked this Diesel 9 several times in my TW days. I always thought it was cool because on some of the doors of the old EA tailed planes you could see blue and teal stripes still. Amazing what the next year will hold for fallen paint jobs, but that’s another thread.
Obviously to early to tell, but unfortunately when you think of the geography you think of a less superior aviation infrastructure than that in N America and Western Europe, it makes you think of less superior training, or less superior maintenance.
Also, these aircraft are run really hard without much maintenance because the lack of capital markets and investment in the region means that nobody can get enough aircraft to serve the people that need to fly, and you need to fly between cities there because there’s no train and driving is difficult and dangerous.
Finally, those are some awesome pictures, I hope whoever took them was well paid to do so.
