Starbow crash: Passenger vents spleen on authorities

A visibly distraught passenger who was aboard the Starbow aircraft which crashed after skidding off the tarmac as it attempted to takeoff took a swipe at the authorities of the airline amidst curses.

Kofi Akosa who could not be subdued by security personnel at the airport terminal fumed that passengers who were aboard the aircraft were being mistreated and abandoned.

A Starbow flight crashed into a fence wall at the Kotoka International Airport on Saturday afternoon, in an attempt to take off.

The plane ended up in the fencing around the airport, leaving dozens of passengers traumatised.

A statement from the Emergency Operations Centre of the Kotoka International Airport said “The aircraft was carrying 63 passengers and 5 crew. One passenger sustained minor injuries and is currently under observation at the clinic.”

"Emergency procedures have since been activated at the airport and investigations to establish the cause of the incident has begun. Meanwhile, operations at the airport are continuing normally." the statement added.



Deputy Energy Minister, William Owuraku Aidoo who was one of the passengers aboard tells Ghanaweb.com that bad weather could have contributed to the failure of the pilot to get the aircraft off the ground.



Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for Asawase, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka who had his flight delayed as a result of a plane crash has expressed his frustration and dissatisfaction at recurrent poor services rendered by domestic airlines in the country.

According to him, regulators of airlines must sanction companies who are not up to task.

“… the regulators who are supposed to be monitoring this, whether they’re really aware and whether they’re up to task; because when these things happen you expect that the regulators will be counting then number of times that these things happen.

“… It’s becoming too many and I think that the airlines should sit up because gradually with the gains that we have made in terms of domestic flights, if we’re not careful we’ll begin closing them because people will begin losing confidence” he stated.