A small military transport aircraft crashed into a residential area of Kenge in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, killing all 13 people on board.
It was a Let L-410, a twin-engine turboprop operated by Tracep Congo Aviation, flying from the southwestern city of Kikwit to the capital Kinshasa. Kwango province vice governor Remy Saki Bokinda told Reuters the crew reported a technical problem and tried to land at Kenge, which has no airport.
His description was blunt. With no landing strip available in Kenge, he said, the plane crashed into a residential plot.
Local reporting said it circled above the town while the pilot looked for somewhere to put it down. The aircraft came down in the Manzau neighborhood and caught fire.
Earlier today, 13 people were killed after a small plane crashed near airport in Kenge, DR Congo. pic.twitter.com/eB4RP1a3DJ
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) September 25, 2026
What is known
The Kenge Crash
Details from Reuters, AeroTime and the Congolese Press Agency, September 25, 2026. Situation developing.
Contrail
Who Was on Board
Among the dead was General Likulia Bakumi, the auditor general of the Congolese armed forces. A major, a captain, other military personnel and civilians were also on board. The provincial official confirmed there were no survivors.
Congo's aviation accident investigation authority has opened a probe, according to a government statement. Kenge's police chief told the Congolese Press Agency that investigators were still working to establish the cause.
The Aircraft
Czech-built and designed for short flights into small airfields, the L-410 typically carries up to 19 passengers. It has been in production in various forms since the 1970s and remains common across Africa, Central Asia and parts of Europe, precisely because it can operate where larger aircraft cannot.
That capability is also what puts it in the most difficult operating environments. In Congo, a country roughly the size of Western Europe with very little usable road network, aviation isn't a convenience. For many routes it's the only practical way to move people and cargo, which puts pressure on aging aircraft and thin infrastructure.
A Long-Running Safety Problem
Congo has one of the worst aviation safety records in the world. Every airline certified in the country is banned from operating in European Union airspace, a restriction that has been in place for years and applies to the carriers as a group rather than to specific operators.
That ban reflects a long pattern. In 2019, a Busy Bee Congo aircraft crashed into a residential neighborhood in Goma shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board and several people on the ground. Crashes involving small turboprops on domestic routes recur with a regularity that has not meaningfully improved.
Friday's crash follows a familiar shape. A short domestic flight on an aging light aircraft, a technical problem, and a town with nowhere to land.
This story will be updated as the investigation develops.
