VOA常速英语2007-Transport Minister Fired in DRC After Deadly Pla

By Selah Hennessy
Dakar
05 October 2007

A Congolese government spokesman announced Friday that the country's transport minister has been fired for incompetence¹, after a deadly plane crash Thursday left at least 37 people dead.  As the flames from the crash subsided² on Friday, rescue workers searched the wreckage³ for bodies. Selah Hennessy reports from the VOA's West and Central Africa bureau in Dakar. 

Serge Mulumba, a senior official at Congo's Humanitarian⁴ Affairs Ministry⁵, says only one person on board the flight, the mechanic, escaped the crash alive.

He says at least 30 people were injured and nine houses were destroyed in the crash.

He adds that aid workers are working to find and identify bodies, contact family members, and arrange temporary housing for people on the ground whose homes were destroyed.

A local journalist, Eddy⁶ Isango, says the flames had previously⁷ prevented aid workers from combing the wreckage. 

U.N. mission spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux says the fire was put out Thursday but restarted overnight.

"We heard this morning through the local news that the fire had restarted during the night so the emergency services were dispatched again and tried to put out the fire once and for all," he explained.

The accident took place Thursday morning in Congo's capital Kinshasa. Moments after take-off, the plane crashed into a residential⁸ neighbourhood, exploding into flames.

Bonnardeaux says the crash was a result of engine failure.

 "[The] plane took off from Julie airport, which is the central airport in Kinshasa, and experienced some engine troubles from the looks of it, tried to return to the airport, and did not quite make it," he added.

Congolese airplanes are often old and poorly maintained.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, a private flight safety group, the DRC has experienced more fatal plane crashes in the last fifty years than any other African country.

In 1996, 300 people were killed when an airplane crashed into an open-air market seconds after take-off.

The Soviet-era plane, which crashed on Thursday, was owned by the Congolese company Africa One, one of over 50 Congolese airlines banned from flying in the European Union because of safety concerns.

1 incompetence   

n.不胜任，不称职

参考例句：

• He was dismissed for incompetence. 他因不称职而被解雇。
• She felt she had been made a scapegoat for her boss's incompetence. 她觉得，本是老板无能，但她却成了替罪羊。

2 subsided   

v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上

参考例句：

• After the heavy rains part of the road subsided. 大雨过后，部分公路塌陷了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• By evening the storm had subsided and all was quiet again. 傍晚， 暴风雨已经过去，四周开始沉寂下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

4 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

5 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

6 eddy   

n.漩涡，涡流

参考例句：

• The motor car disappeared in eddy of dust.汽车在一片扬尘的涡流中不见了。
• In Taylor's picture,the eddy is the basic element of turbulence.在泰勒的描述里，旋涡是湍流的基本要素。

7 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

8 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。