A small plane crashed on Monday on the outskirts of Juba, the capital of South Sudan, killing all 13 passengers and the pilot, the country's civil aviation authority said. The plane was a Cessna that departed Juba International Airport at 0715 GMT and crashed about 20 km from the capital with no survivors, the South Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
Plane crashes due to poor visibility
Preliminary findings suggest the crash may have been caused by adverse weather conditions, which led to poor visibility.
Among those on board were two Kenyan nationals, while the remaining victims were South Sudanese. "All the bodies were charred beyond recognition," said a member of a UN rescue team sent to the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity to AFP.
Authorities have dispatched a team to the crash site, located about 20 km from Juba, to collect information and assist emergency responders.
Videos of the crash site shared on social media showed the remains of the aircraft in flames. The location in the videos appeared mountainous and misty.
20 people died in January 2025
Twenty people died in January 2025 in a plane crash in northern South Sudan.
In 2021, five people were killed when a cargo plane carrying fuel for the World Food Programme (WFP) crashed.
In 2015, the crash of a Soviet-era Antonov aircraft in Juba killed 36 people.
And in 2017, a plane that veered off a runway struck a fire truck before bursting into flames, but all 37 people on board miraculously escaped unharmed.
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