Baby pulled alive from wreckage of cargo plane
A baby has been pulled alive from the wreckage of a cargo plane which crashed in South Sudan last Wednesday, killing up to 41 people.
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The boy was plucked from the mangled fuselage after the aircraft came down near a river, scattering debris and bodies across remote farmland.
He was one of only two survivors pulled from the crash, but the other one later died.
The Russian-made Antonov-12 aircraft crashed along the banks of the White Nile River barely a mile from the airport in the capital, Juba.
Amid conflicting reports, the death toll ranged from 25 to 41 as humanitarian workers and investigators began combing the crash site.
The plane, which had been bound for the Paloich oil fields in Upper Nile state, was registered in Tajikistan and belonged to Allied Services Limited, said Ateny Wek Ateny, a spokesperson for South Sudanese President Salva Kiir.
A spokesperson for the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Tigran Mkrtchian, confirmed five Armenian crew members died.
Besides the five Armenians, a Russian crew member also died, Ateny said.
He said 10 people on the ground were killed. But witnesses and first responders said no one had been present in the swampy farm plot when the plane came down.
“There were 12 passengers and six crew members, including five Armenians and one Russian, on board the AN-12 plane that crashed in South Sudan,” Mr Atney said, adding that all passengers were Sudanese.
A Ukrainian diplomat in Kenya said five Russians were on the aircraft.
“It is known that the plane belonged to a private company and was Russian-made. The cargo plane was carrying out a transportation request of some oil company.
“According to preliminary data, 12 people were on board. Five of them were Russian citizens, the nationality of the rest is being determined,' said third secretary, Alexander Kalinchuk.