As of last year, Guinea had eight combat capable aircraft, four MiG-21s and four MiG-17Fsm, according to the 2006 edition of the authoritative Military Balance, published by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.
CONAKRY: A Guinean military plane crashed on top of the West African country’s state broadcasting centre and burst into flames yesterday, sparking clashes between police and angry crowds outside, staff and witnesses said.
Youths hurled rocks at police who responded with tear gas and shots in the air, witnesses said, highlighting tensions after a violent general strike earlier this year in which security forces killed well over 100 people.
There was no immediate sign the crash was not accidental.
“I was in my office when we heard a loud noise. The watchmen told me a plane had crashed on the roof,” said Alpha Kabinet Keita, director of Radio-Television Guineenne, outside the building, which had black burn marks around its roof.
“I immediately ordered the staff to evacuate the place. As far as I know, nobody was injured or killed,” said Keita. He said he had suspended broadcasting to prevent any damage to transmission equipment.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control, but it was unclear how much damage it had caused.
A spokesman at the US embassy, which is located across the road from the broadcaster, said there was nobody hurt at the embassy and no damage to the embassy itself, but would not comment further on what had happened.
“The two pilots inside the plane were able to eject and use their parachutes,” said TV journalist Makale Soumah, who works at the broadcaster.
Hundreds of people quickly gathered but as security forces tried to keep them back, some youths threw stones at gendarmerie (paramilitary police) vehicles.
Witnesses said some of the youths suspected the plane crash was an attempt to undermine the new government of Lansana Kouyate, named last month as consensus prime minister under a deal to end the general strike.
The gendarmes fired rounds in the air and released tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd.
Eye-witnesses said the crashed plane was a Soviet-made MiG.
As of last year, Guinea had eight combat capable aircraft, four MiG-21s and four MiG-17Fsm, according to the 2006 edition of the authoritative Military Balance, published by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.
After severing links with former colonial ruler France after independence in 1958, Guinea, the world’s biggest bauxite exporter, built up close links with Moscow but has revived links with France and the US in recent years. – Reuters
