By Vision Reporter
A military plane ‘Dakota’ has burnt to ashes after it crash-landed in Arua district. A military source confirmed to the New Vision that the plane crashed after 3pm in a village called Mingoro, about 8 km from the Arua airfield.
Mingoro is close to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tabaro Kiconjo, the UPDF air force spokesman said the plane belonged to an American company he doesn’t recall but that it was carrying a consignment belonging to the UPDF.
It was being flown by a Lithuanian pilot identified as Plabmir and the copilot Pascal Ekony. The army said the exact cause of the crush has not been established but eye witnesses said as soon as the plane had just taken off from Arua airfield, when it hit a tree and rammed into a grass thatched house.
Moments later, it caught fire, burning two houses on the spot. The passengers jumped out of the plane. There were no fatalities except two soldiers escaped with minor injuries.
The owner of the house identified as Jino Obeyo and his wife Erina Abia were not home at the time of the accident. Nothing was rescued from the burnt houses in the neighbourhood of Ayivuni primary school in the 2:00pm crush.
Kiconco said there were only four solders onboard but the police public relations officer in West Nile Josephine Angucia who also visited the scene said there were 12 people in the plane including three Russians and 9 UPDF soldiers.
