Airjet Angola Flight 100 was a domestic passenger flight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) chartered by the Congolese government from N'djili Airport in Kinshasa to Kolwezi in Lualaba Province with a stopover at Lubumbashi in Haut-Katanga Province. On 17 November 2025, the aircraft operating the flight, an Embraer ERJ-145twinjet, touched down on the runway at Kolwezi before reaching a displaced threshold, resulting in damage to the aircraft's landing gear, and a consequent lateral runway excursion and belly landing. The ensuing fire engulfed first the aircraft's aft section, and then eventually destroyed the whole aircraft, but all 26 passengers (including a DRC government minister) and 3 crew safely escaped the wrecked plane before the fire spread forward and consumed most of the fuselage. Nobody on the ground was injured.
Airjet Exploração Aérea de Carga, or simply Airjet for short, had its articles of association published on 26 July 2012 in the Diário da República III Série – nº143.[1] The airline's head office is at Av. 21 de Janeiro, Quatro de Fevereiro Airport (hangar no. 3) in Luanda, Angola.[2] Like many other Angolan airlines, it is banned from European Union airspace over safety concerns.[3]
Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the Kolwezi crash was an Embraer ERJ-145 with registration D2-AJB[4] and manufacturer's serial number (MSN) 145456.[5] At the time of the Kolwezi crash, it was almost 25 years old. It had been delivered new to its first owner, the Swiss airline Crossair, in 2001, thereafter going through a succession of owners before being acquired by Airjet Exploração Aérea de Carga in 2024.[6]
Angola's Autoridade Nacional da Aviação Civil (National Civil Aviation Authority; ANAC) released an official statement hours after the Kolwezi crash reporting the accident, and giving the aircraft's Air Certificate as COA AO-006/11-16/25 MBC, which was to have been valid until 7 September 2026. ANAC also confirmed "that the aircraft was duly certified and authorized to operate".[7]
Crew
Airjet Exploração Aérea de Carga Flight MBC-100 had a crew of three on board.[4]
Accident
The Embraer ERJ-145 used for this flight had been chartered by the DRC Ministry of Mines to fly an official delegation to Kolwezi after a fatal accident at a mine in that part of the country.[5] The flight itself, MBC-100, originated in the DRC's capital, Kinshasa[8] and had made a stop at Lubumbashi International Airport[4] before later touching down on Kolwezi's Runway 29 at 11:38 CAT on 17 November 2025, but it did so before having reached the runway's displaced threshold; the threshold had been displaced by 1000m to allow room for work that was being done on the runway.[4] There were eyewitness reports from the scene of a possible technical malfunction involving the landing gear's tyres, which might have led to the aircraft's lateral runway excursion.[8] Indeed, the main landing gear collapsed, and the aircraft skidded off to the side of the runway on its belly, and then the tail section burst into flame. All 26 passengers and 3 crew evacuated the aircraft at once before the fire completely destroyed it.[4] The emergency response was swift, but firefighters could not save the aircraft.[9]
Among the passengers was 63-year-old Louis Watum Kabamba[fr], the DRC's Minister of Mines.[10] He had been travelling to the area, along with his entourage, to visit the site of a recent disaster at a mine that had claimed many lives (variously stated to have been "more than thirty" and "more than forty").[10][8] This involved a bridge in the Kalondo region that had collapsed two days before the crash after being overloaded.[4] Kabamba and his delegation were travelling there to inspect the bridge collapse site and to have meetings with local authorities.[9]
There were no casualties in the crash or ensuing fire.[10] Isaac Nyembo, Kabamba's communications adviser, told reporters "We all got out before the flames engulfed the aircraft."[8] However, he also mentioned that all luggage and equipment in the aircraft's hold had been destroyed in the blaze.[9]
Aftermath
Photographs and videos made on the scene at Kolwezi show the accident's aftermath, including the fire that destroyed the Embraer ERJ-145,[10] and also the burnt-out wreck after the fire had been quenched. One video even shows the flight's rough landing from inside the cabin. Also to be seen in one video are heaps of asphalt concrete and damage to the runway.[8][4]
Airjet Exploração Aérea de Carga declared in a statement on social media that the aircraft in the Kolwezi accident was "a total loss", and further, that the airline was helping the aeronautical authorities in the investigation into the crash, "following all international safety protocols".[10] On 19 November, two days after the crash, the DRC's Bureau Permanent d'Enquêtes d'Accidents et Incidents d'Aviation (BPEA) announced that it had sent a team of four to Kolwezi to undertake the investigation into the crash.[4]
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