💭 Zambia police Sunday found the bodies of 27 men, believed to be migrants from Ethiopia, dumped in a farming area on the outskirts of the capital after they died from suspected hunger and exhaustion, authorities said.
A sole survivor was found alive in the early hours of Sunday morning and rushed to a Lusaka hospital for treatment, while the dead were transported to the mortuary for identification and postmortems to determine the exact cause of death, police said.
Preliminary police investigations showed the victims were all males aged between 20 and 38 and had been dumped along a road by unknown people.
“Police and other security wings have since instituted investigations into the matter,” Danny Mwale, police spokesman, said in a statement after police were alerted to the gruesome scene by members of the public.
Ethiopian migrants often use Zambia when traveling to countries such as South Africa, though reports of deaths in transit there are rare.
👉 Courtesy: South African Broadcasting Corporation
💭 The bodies of 27 people, believed to be migrants from Ethiopia, have been “dumped” by the roadside in Ngwerere area north of Zambia’s capital Lusaka.
They likely suffocated to death while in transit, Police Spokesperson Danny Mwale told the BBC.
One survivor found “gasping for air” has been rushed to a local hospital, he said.
Zambia is a transit point for migrants, mostly from the Horn of Africa, who want to reach South Africa.
Mr Mwale said residents of Ngwerere found the bodies on Sunday at 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT).
He said the police believe the migrants are Ethiopian nationals based on the identity documents found on them.
“Our preliminary investigations indicate that a total number of 28 persons, all males aged between 20 and 38, were dumped in Meanwood Nkhosi along Chiminuka road in Ngwerere area by unknown people,” the police said in a statement.
The bodies have been taken to Zambia University Teaching Hospital mortuary.
In neighbouring Malawi, the authorities discovered 25 bodies of Ethiopian migrants in a mass grave in October.
💭 Malawi Finds Mass Grave of Ethiopians | ማላዊ የኢትዮጵያውያን የጅምላ መቃብር አገኘች | ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ!
Ethiopian Airlines flight ET871 was scheduled to operate from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Ndola, Zambia, this morning. The flight was operated by a five year old Boeing 737-800 with the registration code ET-AQP.
It’s being reported that the plane ended up landing at the wrong airport:
The plane was supposed to land at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe Airport, which is the international airport currently being used in Ndola. Instead the plane landed at Copperbelt International Airport, which is the new international airport in the city that’s nearing completion, but not yet open. Somehow the aircraft landed at the new airport by accident. After landing it simply taxied back to the runway, took off, and landed at the correct airport nearly on schedule.
AN Ethopian Airlines is allegedly to have landed at the new Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe Airport which is under construction in Ndola,
instead of the current one in use.
Pilot error comes as the foremost obvious reason.
AN Ethopian Airlines is allegedly to have landed at the new Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe Airport which is under construction in Ndola, instead of the current one in use. Pilot error comes as the foremost obvious reason
How could something like this happen?
As advanced as aviation is, this is far from the first time that a plane has landed at the wrong airport, and it will be far from the last time.
As of now we don’t have much information about what exactly happened, though I’m sure more details will emerge once there’s an investigation. A few things stand out:
Based on my understanding, the new airport looks a lot more like a major airport than the current one; of course that doesn’t justify landing at the wrong airport, but if they were on a visual approach, it explains what could have contributed to this
I wonder if the ATC audio from this will be released; was there a lapse in communication, or how did neither the pilots nor controllers realize the plane was landing at the new airport?
I don’t believe the airport under construction has an operational tower, so it’s pretty amazing that despite landing at the wrong airport, the plane still arrived on-time; did the pilots just make the decision to take off, or was there any dialogue with authorities at the airport?
Bottom line
While details are still limited as of now, it’s being reported that an Ethiopian Airlines 737 accidentally landed at the wrong airport in Zambia today. Instead of landing at the current international airport in the city, the plane instead landed at the new international airport under construction, about 10 miles away. The plane ended up taking off pretty quickly, and still arrived at the correct airport on-time.
I’ll be curious to see if this is investigated more closely, and if so, what the cause of this is determined to be.