General Kikunda Boeing 737-200 plane crash

The Boeing 737-200 belonging to General Kikunda (a senior aviation figure in the Democratic Republic of Congo) crashed during a test flight, killing all seven people on board (Kikunda, was not on board at the time of the accident).

The accident occurred at the capital Kinshasa's airport (Congo). A test flight was carried out, because the General Kikunda had decided to put the aircraft back into use after 9 years of standing idle. It had been left on the airport's parking apron since 1997.

Airport sources said the plane was making a landing when its left main landing gear failed, causing the crash. Reports said the flightcrew, which included a number of aero-engineers, had battled in vain to safely land the stricken aircraft.