A plane carrying two senior military officials crashed in a residential area of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, killing 17 people as the pilot reportedly tried to make an emergency landing.
The death toll rose from an initial 13, according to Congo’s state news agency, ACP, which cited Kwango Vice Governor Rémy Saki. The aircraft went down in Kenge, the provincial capital in the country’s southwest, on September 25.
Breaking – L-410 crash on DR Congo. All 13 aboard died. Flight had diverted to Kenge due to technical difficulties enroute but crashed at Kenge and burst into fire. Amongst the victims were the president of the military high court and other military and civilian personnel. Aircraft was operated by Tracep (Reg 9S-GUC) https://t.co/xQgBYSLKOt
— Francisco Cunha – ✈️ Aviation et al (@OnDisasters) September 25, 2026
The flight was traveling from Kikwit to the national capital, Kinshasa, when it encountered what Saki described as a technical problem. The aircraft crashed on a residential property and caught fire. Officials reported no survivors aboard.
“With no landing strip available in Kenge, the plane crashed into a residential plot,” Saki told Reuters.
According to local reporting by Radio Okapi, the pilot circled above Kenge several times while looking for somewhere to land. Despite the crash’s proximity to homes, initial accounts indicated that nobody on the ground was killed.
Among the victims were two leading figures in Congo’s military justice system.
The armed forces identified them as Lt. Gen. Joseph Mutombo Katalay Tiende, first president of the High Military Court, and Lt. Gen. Lucien-René Likulia Bakumi, the armed forces’ auditor general.
The men were returning from an official mission in Kikwit. An army statement also reported the deaths of 12 other delegation members and the aircraft’s crew, according to Radio Okapi. Their deaths mean the country has lost both a senior military court leader and a top military prosecutor in the same disaster.
Authorities have announced an aviation accident investigation, but the precise cause has not been established. The reported technical problem remains an early official account, rather than a completed finding by investigators.
Questions also remain about the attempted landing. In a follow-up interview with Congolese news outlet Actualite.cd, Saki said he could not explain why the crew tried to put the aircraft down in Kenge instead of continuing toward Kinshasa.
Early reports gave differing passenger totals, adding to the uncertainty in the hours after the crash. The later provincial toll of 17 updates those initial accounts, while investigators still face the central question of what went wrong during the flight.
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