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Airbus A310 accident in Mbuji-Mayi

24 Dec 2015 · Mbuji-Mayi Airport, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Serve Air Airbus A310-304F · Runway excursion

From Lubumbashi International Airport (FBM) to Mbuji Mayi Airport (MJM)

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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
8 · all aircraft and ground (occupants minus survivors)
Ground fatalities
8
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
5
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
9
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
Unknown

Airbus A310-304F

Aircraft type
Airbus A310
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-CVH
Operator
Serve Air
Onboard fatalities
0 (occupants minus survivors)
Route
From Lubumbashi International Airport (FBM)To Mbuji Mayi Airport (MJM)

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

The Airbus A310 accident in Mbuji-Mayi occurred on 24 December 2015, when a Serve Air Airbus A310-304F that had taken off from Lubumbashi Airport overran the end of the runway on landing at Mbuji-Mayi Airport, broke through the airport fence and collided with a residential settlement, in which eight residents were killed and nine others were injured.

Accident sequence

At the time of the accident it was raining heavily. According to reports, the crew of the A310 had already carried out two missed approaches when, on the third approach, they touched the aircraft down on runway 17 of Mbuji-Mayi Airport. The pilots were unable to bring the aircraft to a stop on the runway. The aircraft overran the end of the runway and rolled into a residential settlement that began 300 metres beyond the end of the runway. The Airbus swept away several huts. Eight people from the settlement, seven women and a boy, were killed and nine other people were injured.

Investigation and cause

Cause

After the accident, it was suspected that the dilapidated condition of the runway surface had been the cause of the accident. Two weeks earlier, Congo Airways had suspended its flights to Mbuji-Mayi because of what it considered to be the unacceptable condition of the runway surface. Officials of the Congolese civil aviation authority who had inspected the runway on 20 December 2015 described its condition as indeed old, but usable. On 19 August 2015, a Korongo Airlines Boeing 737-300 was badly damaged on takeoff in Mbuji-Mayi when pieces of asphalt that had come loose from the runway struck the elevators during the takeoff roll.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall eines Airbus A310 in Mbuji-Mayi” (revision 258180046, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article

Sources

German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall eines Airbus A310 in Mbuji-Mayi
Article
Flugunfall eines Airbus A310 in Mbuji-Mayi
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
258180046 · 2025-07-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q24908574
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
de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall eines Airbus A310 in Mbuji-Mayi" (page 11948996, revision 258180046), translated into English with AI assistance
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
not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities plus ground fatalities (aircraft occupants minus survivors)
Ground fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.
  • The Wikipedia infobox's fatality count includes the ground fatalities (its survivors account for everyone else aboard); those aboard who died are that count minus the ground fatalities.