Survivor of Congo air crash describes her escape
Marybeth Mosier crawled from the plane with her family. Forty people died.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/C4GQYJHNMRC5JL3YFOUAEI3SE4.jpg)
GOMA, Congo - A hand reached out from beneath the smoldering, crushed seat. Marybeth Mosier grabbed it and pulled, but she could not help the burning man trapped inside the wrecked jetliner.
Mosier crawled from the smoke-filled aircraft with her husband and 3-year-old son, reaching safety through a hole other passengers had smashed in the plane's side. Her 14-year-old daughter escaped by wriggling through another crack in the fuselage.
Most of the 79 passengers survived Tuesday when the DC-9 jet careered off the runway into a crowded market. But 40 people were killed - 38 of them on the ground - and more than 110 were injured.
It was unclear yesterday whether the man Mosier tried to help made it out of the plane.
"I just feel so sorry for these people," said Mosier of Dodge Center, Minn. "There is no reason we should be alive."
The tales yesterday of death - and seemingly miraculous survival - underscore the dangers of air travel in Congo, which has had more fatal plane crashes than any other African nation since 1945, according to the Aviation Safety Network. The desperately poor country is also struggling to emerge from a 1998-2002 civil war.
The DC-9 crashed after failing to lift off in the eastern town of Goma, ramming through an airport fence and into rows of wooden houses and concrete shops selling food and fuel.
It was unclear what caused the crash, but passengers and officials said the plane had been delayed briefly by rain, then apparently blew a tire and went out of control. Several witnesses said there was an explosion after the crash.
Both the plane's black boxes have been recovered, and technicians were working to decode the information.
Transport Minister Charles Mwando Nsimba said the death toll could rise. "We have to take into account the fact that there are bodies still trapped under the rubble," he said.
The DC-9 was operated by the private Congolese company Hewa Bora Airways, which the European Union added last week to its blacklist of airlines banned from flying in the European Union. Air safety has long been lax in Congo, where officials are easily bribed and maintenance schedules are rare.
According to an AP count, the country has had at least 20 other fatal plane crashes since 1996. Most of its aircraft are aging planes from the former Soviet Union.