South Sudanese Air Force Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashed upon landing.
Eleven of the seventeen occupants were injured. A top South Sudanese army general has survived a plane crash in Lakes State.
According to the aviation director at Rumbek airport Achui Marop Guely, the helicopter was carrying 14 passengers, three crew members, and the body of the late Hon. Gabriel Matur Malek, a veteran politician who died in Juba after a long illness.
General Garang Mabil and 12 others were said to have been aboard a helicopter carrying the remains of the late hon. Gabriel Matur Malek when it came down in Cuibet County Sunday afternoon.
Eleven people sustained minor injuries, according to the executive director of the defunct Cueibet County.
Speaking to Eye Radio from Cueibet, Zachariah Mamer said other prominent leaders and military generals who survived the crash include General Majak Arol and Brigadier Mamer Ayom.
“The helicopter came from Juba, it was carrying the body of the late hon. Gabriel Matur Malek,” Mr. Mamer said.
“When it reached Cueibet town, there is a football field and a girls’ school, then very big dust came and that was the cause of the crash.”
Mamer added, “only Eleven people were injured but nobody sustained fractures, nobody died.”
Plane crashes are frequently reported in South Sudan. Some of them have been fatal in the past years.
