Police, army guard wreckage of burnt plane

By Vision Reporter

Police and the army have been deployed to guard the wreckage of a military plane which burnt to ashes on Monday after it crash-landed in Arua district.

The plane ‘Dakota’ crash-landed into a grass-thatched hut after 3pm in a village called Mingoro, about 8 km from the Arua airfield.

 Mingoro is close to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

North-western Police boss, Sam Okot Arra, told the New Vision on Tuesday morning that, “Police and the army have been deployed at the scene of the accident as investigations into the cause of the tragedy kick off.” 

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 crash 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.

Arua is located about 425 kilometres North-west of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. It borders both Southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.