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General News of Sunday, 2 March 2003

Source: GNA

Aircraft from Cote D'Ivoire crash-land in Volta Region

A single-engine private aircraft flying from Cote D' Ivoire to Togo on Friday crash-landed in a farm at Gamadzra, a village about five kilometres north of Aflao in the Volta Region.

Philip Gercein, 56, a French national based in Togo, who is the owner and the Pilot of the plane with Mary Abui, 27, his Togolese friend on board the aircraft escaped unhurt.

There was little damage to the plane, except for a simple twist in one of its wings.

When the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the scene of the incident at about 4.30 pm, two and half hours after the crash, a large crowd of people from nearby villages had gathered to take a look at the plane and the two occupants who escaped unhurt.

Personnel of the Ghanaian security agencies who were also on the ground to protect the aircraft and the victims later assisted the owner and his friend to cross into Togo.

Mr Gercein, told the GNA that just about some four minutes for the aircraft to land, he detected that the plane's engine, had gone off.

He said to avoid landing in a populated area he managed to veer the plane into Ghana and crash-landed in the cassava farm at Gamadzra.

Mr Gercein said he had been using the plane for the past 18 months.