A Douglas DC-8-73CF has been involved in a runway accident in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The aircraft, operated by Trans Air Cargo Service, departed the paved surface while landing at N’djili International Airport in Kinshasa on September 8. The aircraft was operating as 9S-AJO and reportedly left runway 24 towards the left before coming to a halt on the ground alongside the runway.
Once off the runway, the four-engined freighter travelled onto soft ground and eventually stopped. Images circulating from the airport show the aircraft resting with its nose close to the ground after the nose landing gear collapsed.
The full extent of the damage has yet to be established. In particular, it remains unclear whether the ageing freighter will be returned to service or whether the incident will bring its operational career to an end.
The accident investigation is now under way. No fatalities have been reported.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Permanent Bureau of Investigation of Aviation Accidents and Incidents has classified the occurrence as an accident and dispatched investigators to N’djili. The authority has also instructed that the aircraft and other relevant evidence remain undisturbed until the investigation team has completed its initial examination.
Visibility was reportedly reduced by haze around Kinshasa when the accident occurred. However, there has been no official indication that the weather was a contributing factor, and it would be premature to draw conclusions before investigators have examined the available evidence.
The accident is particularly notable because of the aircraft involved. 9S-AJO is around 56 years old and was understood to be the only active aircraft in Trans Air Cargo Service’s fleet. It is also one of a very small number of Douglas DC-8s that continued to perform commercial work more than five decades after the type first entered service. The aircraft was not originally built as a DC-8-73. It began its career as a DC-8-63, part of Douglas’s Super 60 family, before being converted to the later DC-8-73 configuration.
That conversion replaced the original engines with CFM56 turbofans, providing significantly improved fuel efficiency and lower noise compared with the aircraft’s original powerplants. The resulting DC-8-73 became one of the more capable ways of keeping the veteran jet relevant in later commercial service.
Douglas and McDonnell Douglas ultimately produced 556 DC-8s, with production ending in 1972. While passenger service disappeared from most fleets many years ago, a small number of converted aircraft survived in freight operations.
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Author: Edward Hardy
