Rescuers from the Congolese Red Cross found seven more victims of the cargo plane, which crashed Friday evening in Makazou, south-west of Brazzaville, the Congolese capital, bringing the the death toll as at Saturday to 32.
The Congolese Ministry of Transport and Civil aviation had said earlier that 25 people died from the crash, saying: “Of the victims, the six crew members and a gendarme were the only passengers on the place.”
“We have a total of 32 dead but we are continuing our search,” PANA learnt from Red Cross officials.
The plane, an Illyushin-76 Soviet plane belonging to the private airline, Aero-Service, from Pointe-Noire, crashed hundreds of metres away from the Maya-Maya international airport in Brazzaville as it approached to land.
Officials confirmed that the plane destroyed a dozen houses, killing many people in the process before crashing in a field and catching fire.
The plane was carrying vehicles and other goods for the Congolese airline.
Witnesses say that the accident may have been caused by violent storm which hit the Congolese capital at the time.
In March last year, the crash of an Antonov-type plane in Pointe-Noire, Congo’s main economic capital in the south, claimed 23 lives and injured 14.
In 2008, the Congolese government banned passengers from flying in Antonov 24-type aircraft because they did not meet international civil aviation standards.
