DRC suspends TRACEP Congo Aviation's operating certificate after Let 410 crash kills 17, including two generals

The Democratic Republic of Congo's Ministry of Transport has suspended the air operator certificate of TRACEP Congo Aviation after a Let 410 UVP aircraft, registration 9S-GUC, crashed near the city of Kenge, capital of Kwango Province, killing all 17 people on board.

The crash occurred at approximately 2:00 pm on Friday. The aircraft was flying from Kikwit to Kinshasa when, according to local authorities, it made several turns before crashing into a plot of land. The 17 fatalities comprised 13 passengers and 4 crew members. Kenge's Mayor Noël Kuketuka said no one on the ground was injured. Among the dead were two senior officers of the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC).

The Ministry said the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Transport, Communications, and Rural Development, instructed the Civil Aviation Authority to immediately suspend TRACEP Congo Aviation's air operator certificate. The suspension covers the airline's operations across the entire national territory and remains in effect until the completion of the investigation being conducted by the Permanent Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Aviation Accidents (BPEA). President Félix Tshisekedi separately ordered an expert-led probe into the crash, confirming the loss of the FARDC officers in an official statement. The Ministry said it would provide further information on the progress of the investigation in due course.

A fatal crash involving senior military passengers tends to trigger an immediate administrative response from a civil aviation authority, separate from and ahead of any technical finding on cause. Suspending an operator's certificate pending an investigation is a containment step: it grounds the carrier's fleet nationwide while the BPEA works, without prejudging what the inquiry will find.

In markets where a national investigation body like BPEA exists, the certificate suspension and the technical inquiry proceed on separate tracks, and the airline's return to service typically waits on the latter's conclusions rather than a fixed timeline. Whether TRACEP Congo Aviation resumes operations will depend on what BPEA determines and what conditions, if any, the Civil Aviation Authority attaches to lifting the suspension. The next dated marker to watch is the promised update from the Ministry of Transport on the investigation's progress.