2002 Prestige Airlines Boeing 707 crash
Boeing 707-123B · Crashed on approach
From N'Djamena International Airport (NDJ) to Maya-Maya International Airport (BZV)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA02WA048
- 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
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 28 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 30
- Survivors
- 2
- 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
- 2
- 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
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Boeing 707-123B
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- 9XR-IS
- Operator
- Prestige Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 28
- Route
- From N'Djamena International Airport (NDJ)To Maya-Maya International Airport (BZV)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Unknown
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 4 July 2002, a Boeing 707 operated by Prestige Airlines crashed whilst attempting an emergency landing at Bangui Airport, killing 28 of the 30 people on board. The flight was bound for Brazzaville, but the crew decided to divert to Bangui when the landing gear failed to retract.
Background
The passengers consisted of 17 Chadians on board. The Boeing 707 belonged to airline New Gomair, owned by a local businessmen, but was chartered by Prestige Airlines at the time of the accident.
Crash
On the final approach to Bangui, the aircraft descended until it contacted the ground. The crash occurred in clear weather at about 11:15 a.m. local time in the neighborhood of Guitangola, two miles short of the Bangui Airport's runway. The aircraft exploded upon touchdown, scattering wreckage and reportedly causing the roof of an empty house to collapse.
The two survivors were engineer Laurent Tabako and a woman from Chad; both were admitted to a hospital. According to Tabako, the engines stopped before landing and the crew may have dumped too much fuel before an emergency landing. The witnesses reportedly did not hear the usual engine noise during the crash and saw no flames when the aircraft disintegrated. The aircraft's flight recorder and voice recorder were recovered and an investigation was launched by the government of the Central African Republic.
The flight had requested an emergency landing due to a "technical incident".
Text from the Wikipedia article “2002 Prestige Airlines Boeing 707 crash” (revision 1363908513, 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: 2002 Prestige Airlines Boeing 707 crash
- Revision
- 1363908513 · 2026-07-13 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q17069589
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA02WA048
- Event ID
- 20020718X01168
- Case number
- DCA02WA048
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2002 Prestige Airlines Boeing 707 crash" (page 42925681, revision 1363908513); merged with NTSB case DCA02WA048 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: 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); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA02WA048
- Operation
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): AFP 'dernier bilan', 9 July 2002 (via Sangonet); matches the Aviation Safety Network record, https://www.sangonet.com/afriqg/PAFF/Dic/ActualiteC10/Bilan707acc9jl02.html
- Ground fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): AFP 'dernier bilan', 9 July 2002 (via Sangonet); matches the Aviation Safety Network record, https://www.sangonet.com/afriqg/PAFF/Dic/ActualiteC10/Bilan707acc9jl02.html
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2002 Prestige Airlines Boeing 707 crash" and NTSB case DCA02WA048, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Death toll settled: the NTSB record (DCA02WA048) gives 23 and the Wikipedia article 28; AFP 'dernier bilan', 9 July 2002 (via Sangonet); matches the Aviation Safety Network record gives 28. The NTSB figure of 23 is the early toll that AP and IOL reported on 5-7 July 2002. AFP's final count on 9 July was 28 dead of 30 aboard (20 Chadian passengers + crew) and no ground victims, up from official interim counts of 24 and 27. I found no investigation report. (Medium confidence, for the reason given.)
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.