BEVERLY HILLS, September 09, (THEWILL) – No fewer than 17 people have died in South Sudan when a small aircraft carrying passengers from Juba International Airport to the city of Yirol crashed into a lake.
“The plane crashed and killed 17 people and we have three survivors,” State information Minister Taban Abel told Reuters from Yirol.
The plane carried a total of 22 people.
One of the survivors, an Italian doctor working with an NGO, is in critical condition and undergoing surgery in Yirol Hospital, the minister said.
An eyewitness had earlier said bodies were recovered from the water.
There were three children among the 22 passengers, a source said.
“We have not yet established full details of the airline but what we know it is a 19-seater plane coming from Juba to Yirol this morning,” said regional information minister for the Eastern Great Lakes state Taban Abel Aguek.
