Baku-APA. All 34 people on board a Mozambican passenger plane died in a crash Friday afternoon in northeastern Namibia, a government investigator told Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) here on Saturday evening, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
The Mozambique Airlines on a separate occasion put the toll at 33 including six crew members and 27 passengers.
Erickson Nengola, Director of Aircraft Accident Investigation from Namibia's Ministry of Works and Transport, told the NBC in a live-broadcast interview that the ministry got report from local police that a plane had crashed in Bwabwata National Park in northeastern Namibia's Kavango East Region on Friday afternoon.
Two groups of investigators were sent separately on Friday evening and Saturday morning, only to locate the wreckage at around 10 a.m. local time on Saturday in a bushy forest area.
"Unfortunately there were no survivors," said Nengola.
The aircraft was ripped to pieces when it hit the ground. "The remains of those on board were scattered around some meters away from the accident, bodies were mutilated and some burnt beyond recognition as the plane burst into flames," an NBC journalist reported from the scene.
The Mozambican airliner was enroute from Maputo to Luanda via Botswana and Namibia Friday morning, and was expected to arrive at around lunchtime.
According to Nengola, the weather was fine on Friday during the time of accident, but towards the afternoon it was raining and it was getting dark. So the rescue team had to withdraw and start again Saturday morning.
The investigators managed to recover the voice recorder, but are still searching for the two "black boxes" equipped on the Brazilian-made Embraer 190. Brazil, Mozambique and the manufacturer of the engines from the United States have been informed and are going to send teams to Namibia, said Nengola.
However, Nengola said the nationalities of the passengers are still not clear at this stage.
Addressing conflicting reports about the "major accident" since Friday, Nengola reiterated that "there were only 34 souls on board, unfortunately nobody survived."
"Namibia is dealing with investigations. We are waiting for our counterparts and we are going to manage it. We have equipment, we have capacity," assured Nengola, admitting that the investigation may take months.
The recovered bodies have been flown to a mortuary in Rundu, capital of Kavango East Region, reported the NBC.
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