October 10: On This Day in World History … briefly

1998:  Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

1998 Lignes Aériennes Congolaises crash refers to a non-scheduled domestic Kindu–Kinshasa passenger service that was shot down by rebel forces, just after take-off from Kindu Airport, during climbout, on 10 October 1998. All 41 occupants of the aircraft perished in the incident. The aircraft involved was a Lignes Aériennes Congolaises Boeing 727-30, registration 9Q-CSG, which had its maiden flight on 10 March 1965. The airframe was 33 years old at the time of the crash.

The Boeing 727-30 took off from Kindu Airport on a domestic non-scheduled passenger flight to N’djili Airport in Kinshasa with 38 passengers and 3 crew on board. Only three minutes into the flight, the rear of the aircraft was struck by a Russian-made shoulder-fired Strela 2 surface-to-air missile. The captain attempted an emergency landing, but the plane crashed into a dense jungle near Kindu. All 41 people on board perished.

Formed by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2005, it was the successor of an airline with the same name that folded in 2003, but had a different air operator’s certificate. The carrier started operations in 2005 with SkyCongo aircraft flying on LAC’s behalf. It was shut down in 2006, following an accident with a Convair 580, but was reactivated under a joint venture with Bravo Airlines. When this latter airline folded in 2007, LAC was idle once again. It apparently restarted operations in June 2008, this time with chartered equipment from Air Zimbabwe.

Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.

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