A commercial aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff in South Sudan’s Jonglei State on Tuesday, killing all 14 people on board. The flight, operated by a local charter company, went down in a remote area near the town of Pieri, leaving no survivors among the passengers and crew.
The wreckage was discovered by local residents hours after the plane disappeared from radar. Officials confirmed the death toll late Tuesday evening, noting that the victims included women and children who were being transported to the capital, Juba.
“The plane was a small charter aircraft,” said a local administrator familiar with the initial recovery efforts. “It went down in a swampy area that is difficult to reach, which slowed the arrival of emergency responders.”
Aviation safety in South Sudan remains a volatile issue. The country’s civil aviation authority has faced years of scrutiny regarding aging fleets and lax maintenance protocols. This incident follows a similar crash in 2021, where a cargo plane went down in the same region, killing all 10 people on board.
The Civil Aviation Authority has launched an investigation into the cause of the crash. Initial reports suggest the pilot may have encountered technical difficulties shortly after departing the Pieri airstrip, but investigators have yet to recover the flight data recorder.
For the families of those lost in Pieri, the tragedy highlights the dangers of relying on aging, lightly regulated air transport in a region where road infrastructure is virtually non-existent. As the recovery teams clear the site, the government faces renewed pressure to ground substandard aircraft and enforce stricter safety audits.
The authorities have not yet released the full manifest of the victims, pending notification of next of kin.
