Tracep L-410 Crashes at Kenge in DR Congo, Killing 17 Including Two Generals

A Let L-410 Turbolet operated by Tracep Congo Aviation crashed in the town of Kenge in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 25 September 2026, killing everyone on board. It is the operator’s second L-410 loss in about two months.

The flight

The aircraft, registered 9S-GUC, had left Kikwit for Kinshasa’s N’Dolo airport carrying 13 passengers and four crew, according to AeroInside. Officials said the crew reported a technical problem en route and diverted to Kenge, in Kwango province.

Local accounts cited by AeroInside say the aircraft circled several times before it came down on a residential plot in the Manzaw area, near the former aerodrome, and caught fire. Early reports said nobody on the ground was hurt.

Initial casualty figures were lower. A report carried by CP24 on 26 September gave 14 dead, and AeroInside later put the toll at 17, with nobody surviving.

Who was on board

The passengers included two of the most senior figures in the Congolese military justice system: Lieutenant General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi Tiende, president of the High Military Court, and Lieutenant General Lucien-René Likulia Bakumi, auditor general of the armed forces. A military spokesperson said members of their delegation and the crew also died.

An airfield no longer in use

One detail raises questions for investigators. AeroInside reports that the Kenge aerodrome had been disused since 2023, with new streets and buildings built over the former runway. If the crew diverted there because it was the nearest field, they would have been heading for a strip that could no longer be used. Whether the crew knew this, what alternatives were available and what the technical fault was are all open questions.

The chairman of the Congolese civil aviation authority said the cause of the crash was unknown, according to CP24. Investigators were sent to the site, and papers recovered there, including a passenger manifest and checklists, confirmed that Tracep was operating the flight.

Regulatory response

AeroInside reports that the Ministry of Transport suspended Tracep’s air operator certificate immediately after the accident. AeroInside describes the Kenge crash as Tracep’s second L-410 loss within roughly two months.

Two accidents in that time will put pressure on the Congolese authority to examine the operator’s maintenance control, crew training and oversight. The L-410 is a 19-seat twin turboprop widely used on short, unpaved or poorly equipped routes in Africa, Latin America and Central Asia, and the type has a long record in regional services.

What comes next

The investigation will be run by Congolese authorities, and a preliminary report would normally be expected within 30 days under international practice, though the pace of publication in the DRC has varied in the past. Readers should treat any account of the fault as unconfirmed until that document appears.