Investigations Into Plane Crash Near El-Wak Stadium Begins

Preliminary investigations have begun into how an Allied Air Boeing 727 cargo plane with 5N-BJN embossed on it, overshot the runway at the Kotoka International Airport and smashed through the airport's perimeter fence and later ended up ramming into a 207 Commercial Benz minivan that was full of passengers on a nearby street. Ghana, a nation of nearly 25 million in West Africa, according to the latest statistical service census figures, has not had a major airplane crash in recent years. The last air emergency the country had was in June 2006, when a TAAG Linhas Aereas De Angola flight to Sao Tome hit birds during takeoff. The plane landed safely and none of the 28 people onboard were injured. But on Saturday, at about 7:10pm, flight number DHV 111 operating from Lagos to Accra, somehow when landing, skidded off the runway, broke through the perimeter fence and went across the 37-Burma Camp road near the El-Wak Sports stadium and the Hajj Village, where Muslims in the country stay before they journey to Mecca. It then collided with mini bus before halting. The badly mangled bus was found next to the aircraft which had its wings and tail broken off from its body and was lying across the road from the airport on its belly. Whiles officials claim 10 people died, eye-witnesses say the death toll could be more since the 23-seater minivan was more than half full. Spokesman for the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Billy Anaglate, disclosed in an interview that all 10 passengers in the bus were killed on impact. "What happened is that the Allied (Air) Cargo plane, actually I was told, was traveling from Nigeria to Ghana. At the landing it was short of the boundary, and it went off onto the roadside. It crashed into a bus� (The plane) broke the barrier and went onto the road and hit the vehicle and unfortunately in the vehicle everyone ended up dying. The poor people were killed," he said. Luckily, however, the plane's four crew members survived the crash and were rushed to the 37 Military Hospital, according to Doreen Owusu Fianko, Managing Director of Ghana Airport Company. ��the crew of four people on board all survived the accident and are currently receiving treatment�The aircraft collided with a minivan, resulting in 10 confirmed fatalities," she said. Though the cause of the incident has not been established as yet, it is believed that poor visibility due to the heavy thunderstorm that hits parts of the capital this evening, might have caused the plane to crash. But Peacefmonline sources at the Ghana Aviation Authority say they suspect a brake failure in the plane may have been a contributing factor.