Ghana’s police battled yesterday to control crowds flocking to the site of a plane crash in Accra, where debris remained scattered after a cargo plane that overshot the runway hit a bus and killed at least 10 people.
Rescue workers and security services immediately cordoned off the site near a stadium and military barracks after the Allied Air Boeing 727 crashed on Saturday night.
The deployment remained heavy yesterday.
Sirens blared as the police tried to contain the chaos caused by hundreds of residents trying to view the badly damaged bus, as well as the plane’s wing and tail, which had completely broken off from the body.
Ghanian President John Atta Mills visited a clinic at the airport yesterday, where some of the injured were being treated.
“I pray that all of you have survived and wish you a speedy recovery,” he said, but did not speak directly to reporters.
The crew of the flight that took off from the Nigerian economic capital survived, but at least 10 people in the bus were killed, officials said.
“Flight number DHV 111, cargo aircraft, operating from Lagos to Accra, has overshot the runway on landing on Saturday, June 2, at 7:10pm local time,” Ghana’s airport operator said in a statement yesterday.
It added that “the crew of four people on board all survived the accident” and were taken to a nearby clinic for treatment.
Ghanian Vice President John Dramani Mahama said at the airport that a thorough investigation would be carried out.
“No early conclusions should be drawn,” he said, before heading toward the scene of the accident.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most