UPDATED: Six perish in Vumba plane crash Part of the wreckage
Part of the wreckage

Part of the wreckage

Cletus Mushanawani in Vumba—
Six people, four of them directors of Beira-headquartered Green Motor Services (GMS) who included a Zimbabwean, were killed in a plane crash here yesterday morning. The eight-seater plane crashed in the Vumba Mountains around 8am on the Zimbabwean side, while heading for Mutare where the victims were due for a board meeting. Witnesses attributed the crash to bad weather since it was misty at the time of the crash.

Adelino DeJesus Mesquita (managing director), Isaac Noor (finance director), Antonio Jeorge Ucucho (legal advisor) and a Zimbabwean, Banele Sibanda (finance and accounts manager), together with crew members, Captain Rui Fonseca Tereira Do-Santos, who was being assisted by his son, Adelino De-Lopus Dos-Santos, were aboard the Mozambican registered Air Transport Company plane, Islander BN-2A-300, Registration Number C9-AOV, when tragedy struck.

Police chief national spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba referred The Herald to the Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) for comment last night.

Plane crash2

However, efforts to get comment from AFZ were fruitless at the time of going to Press.
GMS Mutare Dry Port general manager, Mr Lawrence Takawira, who attended the crash scene, said the four were due to attend a board meeting at the Mutare company.

Green Motor Services runs the Mutare Dry Port, which is involved in the clearing of goods from the Port of Beira in Mozambique.

“We were waiting for the four at Mutare Aerodrome from about 8am together with officials from Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and the Department of Immigration,” said Mr Takawira. “When the plane delayed in arriving, we phoned our Beira office and we were told by the managing director’s secretary that the four had delayed in leaving Beira because of the bad weather.

“We were advised that they will arrive around 9am, but up to 11am they had not arrived. Someone phoned to inform us that there was a plane crash in the Vumba Mountain.

“After verification, we discovered that it was the plane carrying our senior executives. We rushed to the scene and it was confirmed that they were the people aboard that plane. Their death is a sad loss to both Zimbabwe and Mozambique.”

When our Mutare Bureau arrived at the scene around 1pm, the wreckage of the plane and human body parts were strewn all over the place near the summit of the nearly 1 911 metres high mountain where the plane crashed.

Scores of people from both Mozambique and Zimbabwe had scaled up the mountain to catch a glimpse of the wreckage.
The six bodies were later placed in body bags thrown to the scene by an Air Force of Zimbabwe helicopter, which had a torrid time in airlifting the bodies.

The bodies were eventually airlifted after several attempts and were said to have been transported to Mutare Provincial Hospital for post-mortem.

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