2010 Filair Let L-410 crash
Let L-410UVP-E20C · Accident
From Ndolo Airport (NLO) to Ndolo Airport (NLO)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 20 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 21
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Let L-410UVP-E20C
- Aircraft type
- Let L-410
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 9Q-CCN
- Operator
- Filair
- Onboard fatalities
- 20
- Route
- From Ndolo Airport (NLO)To Ndolo Airport (NLO)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 25 August 2010, a Let L-410 Turbolet passenger aircraft of Filair crashed on approach to Bandundu Airport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing all but one of the 21 people on board.
From a statement by the sole survivor, the accident was possibly the result of the occupants rushing to the front of the aircraft to escape from a crocodile smuggled on board by one of the passengers. The move compromised the aircraft's balance to the point that control of the aircraft was lost. However, some sources doubt this claim.
Background
The aircraft was operating a round-robin domestic flight from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, stopping at Kiri, Bokoro, Semendwa and Bandundu. At 13:00 local time (12:00 UTC). The flight was piloted by 62-year-old Belgian Daniel Philemotte, who was also the owner of Filair, and his first officer, 39-year-old Briton Chris Wilson. The crew also consisted of a single flight attendant. All perished in the accident.
Accident
While on final approach to Bandundu Airport, the aircraft crashed into a house approximately 1 kilometer (1 km) short of the runway. According to most sources, no one was injured on the ground, but 19 people were killed instantaneously, with two survivors being taken to hospital, one of whom later died from their injuries. Of the 21 people on board, only one, a passenger, survived. Most of the dead were Congolese.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Congolese Ministry of Transport opened an investigation into the accident. There was no post-impact fire, a circumstance that led to initial speculation that the aircraft may have suffered fuel exhaustion. However, the aircraft was later determined to have 150 l of fuel remaining in its fuel tanks.
The only survivor of the crash stated to the investigators that a crocodile smuggled in a duffel bag by one of the passengers had escaped shortly before landing, sparking panic among the passengers. The flight attendant rushed towards the cockpit, followed by all passengers, and the resulting shift in the aircraft's centre of gravity led to an irrecoverable loss of control. The crocodile reportedly survived the crash, only to be killed with a machete by authorities.
An Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigator stated that the claim was "extremely unlikely" but that they "wouldn't rule it out completely". They later stated that they were unable to draw any definitive conclusions due to not being in possession of the flight recorder data. The inquest into the death of the British first officer resulted in an open verdict, with the coroner stating that issues with obtaining black box data, and witness unreliability had only led to "vague guesses" and that further information wasn't able to be obtained.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2010 Filair Let L-410 crash” (revision 1369976451, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2010 Filair Let L-410 crash
- Article
- 2010 Filair Let L-410 crash
- Revision
- 1369976451 · 2026-08-18 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2290851
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2010 Filair Let L-410 crash" (page 28542038, revision 1369976451)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.