An An-26 cargo plane built in 1980 was carrying out a cargo flight from Kinsasha N'Dijili Airport to Lisala Airport and, upon approaching the destination, got into a real storm with rain and strong winds. “Antonov” landed on the Lisala gravel runway, which is 2 200 meters long, but was unable to brake properly on the slippery surface.
According to local media reports, the plane flew over the beginning of the runway during landing and simply did not have enough of its length. As a result, the An-26 went over the edge of the runway by about 200 meters and ended up in a private area where there was a residential building. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries either inside the aircraft or on the ground, but the pictures from the scene show that the aircraft has serious damage, especially the nose.
The media write that there were long-lasting mosquito nets on board activities intended to be disseminated through the malaria control programme. Since most of the damage concerns the bow of the liner, there is reason to believe that the cargo was not damaged.
The airport's runway has been in poor condition for a long time, which seems to be another reason for this accident. Since it was paved in 1990, it has not undergone any repairs at all.
A similar incident occurred last year. In January 2022, an An-26 overran the runway at Lodge Airport. This time he stopped about 10 meters from the end of the runway, while no one was injured and the aircraft was not damaged. The length of the strip in the Lodge is 1 & nbsp; 600 meters. The An-26 was brought back to the runway and was able to take off without any further problems.
Air Kasaï — an airline of the Democratic Republic of the Congo based at Kinsasha Airport. The carrier was founded in 1983 and was banned from flying in European Union (EU) airspace due to its poor safety record. One of the airline's An-26s crashed fatally in 2005, killing all 13 people on board.