Cameroon’s aviation authority said Tuesday it had retrieved and identified all 11 bodies from the plane crash that killed an Australian tycoon and his colleagues in Congo’s thick jungle at the weekend.
“All eleven bodies were retrieved and identified on Monday evening,” an official from the aviation authority said on condition of anonymity. Authorities from Congo-Brazzaville had found the wreckage on Monday, some 30 kilometres from Yangadou, a small mining town where the flight was due to land.
While Cameroon said all 11 bodies had been recovered from the plane crash, Congolese authorities maintained that one body had still not been found. Congo sent a plane to the town of Ouesso in the northwest, near the site of the crash, the transport ministry told AFP.
“We have sent a cargo plane to Sangha (the region of the crash) to bring the bodies to Brazzaville. They will then be sent to their countries of origin,” Costaud Mackosso said, head of protocol in the transport ministry. Mackosso said earlier that the minister Isidore Mvouba had met with the high military command to discuss the plane crash and also a train accident that occurred overnight Monday in the south, killing several dozen people. Six Australians, two Britons, two French and one US national were on the twin turboprop plane chartered by the Perth-based Sundance Resources company, headed by colourful mining tycoon Ken Talbot, who was among the victims.
The crash wiped out the entire board of his company, plunging it into crisis.