@Sner's comment on 'Yo Dramatards, have you guys ever heard about the famous 2010 Congolese :marseyplanecrash: airplane crash, because a passenger's :baronkroolenstein: pet crocodile was busy gnawing on the pilot's nuts? :marseyitsnuts: :marseynut:'

This happened in 25 August 2010, when a Let L-410 Turbolet twin-engine short-range transport aircraft designed and produced by the Czech, crashed near Bandundu Airport. Of the 21 people onboard, all died, including the pilots, except one passenger, which is how we have any idea of WTF actually caused the crash!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11087817

====(from BBC article)

A plane has crashed in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 20 people, officials say.

One person was also critically injured as it came into land in Bandundu, about 200km (125 miles) west of the capital.

A BBC reporter in Kinshasa says it hit a house, but no-one is thought to have been hurt on the ground.

DR Congo, the size of western Europe, has few roads after decades of :slapfight: civil war, and has one of the world's worst air safety records. :marseyplanecrash:

The BBC's Thomas Hubert says the plane crashed 2km from the airstrip as it attempted to land just after midday.

Colonel Joli Limengo, the local chief of police, told our correspondent that most of those on board had died in the accident, including the two pilots - who were believed to be Belgian nationals. :marseyflagbelgium:

He said that 19 bodies were pulled from the wreckage along with two survivors, one of whom later died. :marseydead:

The aircraft was operated by Filair, an airline based in Kinshasa, and was due to stop over in Bandundu town before continuing its journey to the capital.

Our reporter says Filair, just like all airlines registered in DR Congo, is on the European Union's no-fly list because of the country's poor air safety record. :marseylaughpoundfist:

Transport Minister Laure-Marie Kawanda said a team had arrived in Bandundu to investigate the crash.

====(end quote)

Note that this was BEFORE the investigation by the Belgian authorities were carried out! :marseydinosaur: :carpdino:

Initially the authorities were confused as to why the heck the plane had crashed, cuz usually when these types of small planes tanked it was cuz they were literally out of fuel :marseyxd:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100829234933/https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jlsgE2eRJ5v-2Ntn8FoAY5KUcfKg

====(unknown AFP article)

Plane crashes in DRCongo, 20 dead: deputy governor

(AFP) – 4 days ago

KINSHASA — At least 20 people were killed after a plane flown by the Belgian head of a local airline crashed while trying to land in western Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said.

The Filair Czech-made twin turboprop crashed Wednesday afternoon at Bandundu after a 300-kilometre (200-mile) flight from the capital Kinshasa, and apparently running out of fuel, Vicky Mboso Muteba said.

"They have brought out the people, we have 19 bodies in the morgue," said Mboso, the deputy governor of Bandundu province, northeast of Kinshasa.

One of two survivors later died in hospital. :marseydead: :marseybattered:

The owner of the private airline Filair, Belgian Daniel Philemotte, 62, was at the controls of the Let-410 plane and was among those killed, along with the co-pilot and stewardess, he added.

Mboso said that after an abortive attempt to land, the aircraft turned away and crashed towards the edge of Bandundu city, hitting an earthen house whose residents had managed to flee in time.

There was no explosion, said Mboso, who was one of the first to arrive on the site along with soldiers from MONUC, the UN mission in the Congo.

"Subject to expert opinion... the presumed cause could be a lack of fuel," he said. :platyaboriginal:

====(end quote)

Basically people noted what was strange about this crash was that the fricking plane actually made an attempt to land, but aborted midway?! The authorities were also really puzzled wtf went wrong, cuz the pilot was a :marseyflagbelgium: Eurocuck (and therefore actually competent, unlike the locals). And they also found the plane was completely full of fuel, so empty tanks weren't the cause, compared to what was the cause speculated when the news broke in Congo, as well as some minor Safrican foreign news outlets.

Here's a :marseydeux: article google translated into Bonglish

https://www.radiookapi.net/actualite/2010/08/27/crash-de-bandundu-ville-la-version-de-fil-air/

From the 2 survivors, including the one poor soul whom would die in hospital later, the authorities gathered that there had appeared to be some kind of panic :marseyscream: :lepanicrunning: aboard the plane, so close to the runway, causing all of the passengers to run towards the cockpit, unbalancing the small plane, and pulling the center of gravity, and making the aircraft near inoperable, which is why the pilot had managed to make one aborted attempt at landing, yet still pulled up at the last moment, to end up crashing it near the emergency landing strip of Bandundu Airport later!

====(from french article)

The crash of the Fil Air plane that occurred on Wednesday, August 25 in Bandundu City was not caused by a fuel shortage but rather by a technical failure before being thrown off balance by panicked passengers, indicated John Mbu, the consultant of this airline, forty-eight hours after the occurrence of this tragedy that killed around twenty people including the boss of the company, in the west of the DRC.

John Mbu explained:

"The statement of the only survivor, who was on the plane, said that the pilot had to land on the emergency strip located next to the runway. And that, when he arrived on final and had to point to land on the emergency strip, the passengers, having seen that his nose was not on the runway, screamed and all came into the cockpit."

As it was so close to landing, he continued, it threw the plane off balance and it swung before crashing into a house.

The hypothesis of running out of fuel is therefore not true, according to him, because after checking, there were still at least 150 litres of kerosene in the tanks.

However, regarding the technical breakdown, Fil Air was waiting until Friday evening for the expert report on the black box. This was recovered by civil aviation authorities and the transport ministry, the source said.

====(end quote)

So by this point the confused authorities understood there was some kind of last minute panic? :marseyhmm: :marseyconfused: :marseythonk: :marseyhmmm: :marseyquestion: :marseypregunta: :marseyhuh2: :marseybeanconfused: but they were still clearly uncertain WTF actually was the cause and were waiting for diagnoses of the Black Box

AND THEN: :marseytrollcrazy:

It seems about 3-4 weeks later, when the sole survivor had recovered in the hospital from his injuries and could be questioned more clearly, and without delirium, that apparently fricking one of the passengers had smuggled a pet crocodile aboard, in a duffle bag. And that close to the end of the journey, the fricker apparently escaped, causing a panic shitstorm amongst the rest of the passengers, whom would flee to the opposite end of the aircraft in their headless panic :lepanicrunning: and frick up the center of gravity with such a sudden shift of weight!

https://archive.ph/CptW

====(from archived TheTelegraph article)

The plane came down despite no apparent mechanical problems during an internal flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has now emerged that the crash was caused by the concealed reptile escaping and causing a stampede in the cabin, throwing the aircraft off-balance.

A lone survivor apparently relayed the bizarre tale to investigators. The crocodile survived the crash, only to be dispatched with a blow from a machete. :marseybestfriends:

According to the inquiry report and the testimony of the only survivor, the crash happened because of a panic sparked by the escape of a crocodile hidden in a sports bag. One of the passengers had hidden the animal, which he planned to sell, in a big sports bag, from which the reptile escaped as the plane began its descent into Bandundu. :marseydinosaur: :surerex:

A report of the incident said: "The terrified air hostess hurried towards the cockpit, followed by the passengers." The plane was then sent off-balance "despite the desperate efforts of the pilot", said the report.

====(end quote)

:marseyxd:

Even more hilarious is that the British Air Crash investigators didn't want to believe in the crocodile story and thought it was bullshit :bs: :bs: :bs: and the fact that they couldn't get ahold of the flight-recording data from the Black Box (no idea why) made them sceptic to this story. But due to all the compounded factors, like the Belgian pilots being experienced, the plane being in good condition and fully fueled pre-crash made not good accounts for the cause of the crash outside the hearsay of the sole survivor, whom had little cause to lie.