People gather at the site of a Russian-built cargo plane crash, on a small island in the White Nile river, close to Juba airport, in the Hai Gabat residential are (AFP photo)
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Five Armenian pilots of a Soviet-built cargo plane and dozens of other people reportedly died on Wednesday when it crashed moments after taking off from the airport in South Sudan’s capital Juba.
News reports from the African nation said that the Antonov-12 plane also carried 18 passengers. All but three of them were said to have died. A Reuters witness saw 41 bodies at the site of the crash along a bank of the White Nile River, suggesting that they included people killed on the ground.
A South Sudanese presidential spokesman told Reuters that the six crew of the plane comprised five Armenians and one Russian.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the five Armenian casualties, citing “preliminary informationâ€
