A small plane crashed in a remote part of South Sudan, killing at least 20 people, including an Indian national, on Wednesday, news agency AFP reported.
Gatwech Bipal, the minister of information in the oil-rich Unity state, said that the flight, chartered by Chinese oil firm Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC), had 21 people on board, including two pilots. The Unity state is where the crash happened earlier on Wednesday.
The plane crashed while it was taking off near an oil field to head to the international airport in Juba, the South Sudanese capital.
The plane crashed 500 metres away from the airport,” the minister told AFP by phone.
“21 people were on board. As for now, there’s only one survivor,” the minister added.
All of the passengers are employees of GPOC: 16 South Sudanese, two Chinese nationals, and 1 Indian, local authorities confirmed according to AFP.
According to the minister, the survivor, a South Sudanese engineer working at the oil field, has been rushed to Bentiu State Hospital.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, and authorities had not yet revealed the identities of the victims. Local media reported that the plane was carrying oil workers.
Air crashes: A common occurrence in South Sudan
South Sudanwhich gained independence from Sudan in 2011, is a major oil producer in the region. The East African nation has been trying to ramp up oil production and exports amid persistent cashflow issues for the government.
The young nation lacks a reliable transport infrastructure and air accidents are common, the crashes are frequently blamed on overloading or poor weather.
In 2021 five people were killed after a cargo plane carrying fuel for the UN’s World Food Programme crashed near Juba.
Overloading of planes is common in South Sudan and was believed to have contributed to the 2015 crash of an Antonov plane in Juba that killed 36 people.
In 2017, 37 people had a miraculous escape after their plane hit a fire truck on a runway in Wau before bursting into flames.
