Crash survivor: 'Tried to fight our way to front'

updated 6:20 p.m. ET April 16, 2008

GOMA, Congo - The pilot of a jetliner that rammed into a bustling market killing at least 40 people had tried to stop the plane but couldn't because the runway was too short, survivors said Wednesday.

The DC-9 crashed Tuesday after failing to lift off, ramming through a fence dividing the short runway from a busy market district of shops. An airline official said most of those on board the plane had survived.

Barry Mosier, an American missionary who works in neighboring Tanzania and was onboard with his wife and two children, said the plane's front tire blew out just before the DC-9 went into the air.

The pilot tried to stop the plane but couldn't because the runway was too short, Mosier said.

"Outside the plane we saw that flames were coming around the plane and we knew that it could blow up, explode at any time. So, we tried to fight our way to the front of the plane, as everyone was trying to do as the side doors did not open," Mosier told AP Television News.

"As we were doing this, pulling my son along, he got stuck between people and as we pulled him it broke his leg. But, by God's grace we all got out and we are alive."

Marybeth Mosier, a 51-year-old native of Dodge Center, Minn., said others were not so lucky.

"As we were rushing down the aisle, smoke was coming up through the floor. A man was trapped under the seats and he was burning," Mosier said at Goma's Heal Africa hospital.

Karel Prinsloo / AP A Congolese Red Cross worker walks in the wreckage of a Congolese jetliner on Wednesday. The Congolese jetliner carrying 79 passengers and crew crashed into a busy neighborhood Tuesday.

She said she tried to pull him up. "But there were so many people pushing ... I thought this man was so badly hurt and I couldn't block the way. I climbed over the tops of the seats" to escape. It is unclear if the man Mosier tried to help died.

Dunia Sindani, a former pilot who was among the passengers, told a local radio station that the plane suffered a problem in one wheel — possibly a flat tire — and did not have enough power to lift off.

One of the plane's pilots reported that an engine died as the plane sped down the runway, said Julien Mpaluku, the governor of the district. When the pilots tried to brake, a tire failed as well, he said.

'He is dead, he was burned'
The airport's runway was partially blocked and effectively shortened by lava from a 2002 volcanic eruption. The plane appeared to have burst through a fence separating the runway from a market district of wooden houses and cement shops where sugar, avocado, flour and fuel are sold.

Hundreds of people gathered at the morgue in Goma. Annemarie Mulotwa, 19, leaned against a wall and wept for her young nephew, Kikuni.

"I saw his body inside, he is dead, he was burned," Mulotwa said, covering her face with her hands. "He was 12 years old, he was only in primary school. He wasn't even on the plane."

Mary Rose Kiza, 33, said she watched as her 15-year-old son ran out of a shop, his clothes and body on fire. She does not know if her three other sons were alive.

"What have I done to God to deserve this?" she wailed outside the morgue, after leaving a hospital bed where she was treated for back injuries.

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