The year 2024 has recorded a series of flight accidents, raising questions on the state of air travel in the country
By Jacob Bol and Ben Oduor
Aviation Hunt, a platform that publishes aviation news, says safety must be the number one priority for any airline in all aspects of air transportation.
“To keep passengers and flight crew safe while flying, safety must come first. Aviation safety is important because there are lives involved in every operation of an aircraft,” the platform notes in part.
The year 2024 has witnessed a series of flight accidents across various regions of the country, with the latest incident taking place yesterday, on Tuesday, involving a cargo plane carrying commodities from Juba enroute for Nyirol.
The plane crash-landed in Lankien. Fortunately, there were no causalities and the commodities were not damaged, according to James Bol Makuei, the commissioner of Nyirol County of Jonglei state.
The commodities revealed that the food commodities consumed in region of Greater Akobo majorly transported by cargo planes, which has increased the prices of such items by double, making the life of citizens very hard.
The commissioner confirmed that the accident was caused by heavy winds, which led to the pilot losing control and the wings on the plane broke, causing the plane to crash land in a water tunnel.
“At 10 o’clock this morning (on Tuesday), the cargo plane carrying commodities crash landed in Nyirol. Cargo planes are the only mode of transport for commodity items in Greater Akobo because the Greater Akobo is landlock and cut-off form the rest of the counties of Jonglei state. During the rainy season, such planes are the only form of transport, which doubles the price of the commodities sold in Nyirol,” Bol Said
However, this incident came barely a months after thirty-five people narrowly escaped death when a United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) plane crash-landed at Malakal Airport in August.
The aircraft, which had just taken off from Maban, experienced a critical failure when its tyres fell off moments into the flight.
John David, the Director of South Sudan’s Civil Aviation confirmed the incident to a local media, revealing that the crash was the second, after another incident that had just happened the previous night.
Days earlier before the incident, on a Wednesday, two pilots narrowly escaped death when their cargo plane crashed while attempting to land at an airstrip in Pieri Payam in Uror County.
And on August 8, a cargo aircraft caught fire after landing in Pieri Payam in Uror County of Jonglei State, resulting to injuries two two-crew members on board. The impact would later lead to a fire outbreak that razed some neighbouring huts and cause casualties.
The plane was ferrying humanitarian items, which included water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) cargo, such as blankets, buckets, soap, sleeping mats, and collapsible jerry cans; all which was destroyed in the fire.
Five months earlier, in March, a military cargo plane carrying supplies to Yida in the Ruweng Administrative Area crashed at Yida airstrip.
“The reason was that there was poor visibility in Yida and the whole of the Upper Nile area so now we altered the flight to Upper Nile today until the weather could clear,” Director General of Juba International Airport (JUB), Kuol Kur, told Radio Tamazuj, responding to the cause of the accident.
These are just incidences that have occurred in the year, among pockets others in the previous year.
In a bid to tame such incidences, supervise, promote, and ensure the safety and security of the country’s airspace, the South Sudan National parliament passed the South Sudan Aviation Authority Act 2012 (Amendment) Bill 2024.
“The purpose of this Bill is to provide a regulatory framework for the Civil Aviation Authority in South Sudan to establish a financial and administrative autonomous institution to supervise, promote, develop and regulate Civil Aviation Industry and to provide a system for assuring safety and security of airspace, aerodromes, airstrips and compliance with aviation and international best practices,” said Peter Makuoth Malual, the then Acting Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport.
With air transport being a significant mode within and outside the country, the onus is on various stakeholders to streamline the sector and curtail the incidences. The passing of the Bill was a major step.