By Juma John Stephen
JUBA, December 29 (Gurtong) – The Government of Southern Sudan Minister of Information and Broadcasting Paul Mayom Akec told the press that the woman who was on the ground died when a plane belonging to a Kenyan company hit her as it was landing at the airstrip from Juba International Airport with 38 passengers on board.
The Minister said the plane was carrying an advance team to welcome the President of the Government of Southern Sudan General Salva Kiir Mayardit in Tonj.
“Some media houses have taken the news out of its actual context. The truth is that the Office of the President engaged the services of the company named 748 Aviation Company based in Kenya to take some of the President’s staff to Warrap State, in this particular case to Tonj town”, Minister Mayom explained.
“As the plane was just about to land, the pilot could not calculate the lengths of the airstrip and therefore it landed almost in the middle of the airstrip and coursed an overshot. It is this overshooting that resulted into the death of the pedestrian woman. All who were on board were all safe and came out unscathed”, he explained.
The Minister castigated some media houses for claiming that 40 people had died in the incident.
“I wonder where these news agencies got the news that the plane had killed 40 people! The plane only overshot the runway and came to a stop; it has not crashed”, he said.
According to a cameraman with Southern Sudan TV who was aboard the plane, the aircraft indeed had trouble while landing.
“The pilot said there were no breaks. Two of the tyres burst during the landing. It stopped near the Rumbek-Wau road and hit and killed the woman who was just walking”, he said.
There was no official communication from 748 Aviation Company by the time we went to press.