One person has died after a helicopter crashed on Friday, 5 December, in the waters of Lake Tanganyika.
Local civil society groups say the aircraft went down during the day near Yungu, in Fizi territory, South Kivu. Two crew members were pulled from the water alive, and rescue operations continued late into the evening.
Details about the helicopter remain limited, but sources confirmed that all three people on board were expatriates. The aircraft had taken off from Uvira in South Kivu and was en route to Kalemie in Tanganyika Province when the crash occurred.
The incident comes about 18 months after a World Food Programme (WFP) helicopter made an emergency landing in Mabula, near Kalehe, following an engine fire. In that case, all three crew members and four passengers survived, and the aircraft was later recovered. The seven occupants were flown to Goma the same evening.
Related reports on Radio Okapi include the discovery of debris from a plane that disappeared on 10 September in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park area, and the disappearance of another aircraft after departing from Kavumu Airport.
