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CNN reports a plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Goma airport in the Democratic Republic of Congo, tearing the roofs off houses as it plowed through a densely populated marketplace near the runway.
Antoine Ghonda, a Congolese lawmaker and former foreign minister, said the crash killed at least 18 people while roughly 66 others -- including five crew members -- survived. Numbers are down sharply from earlier estimates that as many as 75 were dead.
Jennifer Brea at Africa Beat writes, "I received an email a few hours ago from a friend in Goma who told me the sky was literally falling. Did my little futile bit, and translated a post by Cabiau, a Belgian aid worker living in Kinshasa, who has had a lot in the past about Congo's proclivity for plane crashes. This is the fifth fatal crash since June 2007. He says--and rightly so--that it takes a photogenic disaster to attract the attention of the Western media; the coverage of this accident is a flash of light on a place that otherwise exists in darkness. I don't use the word 'darkness' in the Joseph Conrad sense, but rather in the sense that if you were to ask most relatively well-educated Westerners what the deadliest conflict was since World War II, I think many (or at least the Americans) would answer, the Vietnam War.' The International Rescue Committee estimates the death toll of the Second Congo War (1998-2003ish) is 5.4 million."
"I can see shops that have been just completely destroyed," said Anna Ridout of relief agency World Vision, who arrived at the scene from her nearby office moments after the crash. "This was a market area where women were selling their goods. ... People were talking of people just being plowed over by the plane moving across the ground and through the shops and through wooden houses."
***
In a rare gesture, President Bush traveled from the White House to greet Pope Benedict XVI at Andrews Air Force Base. This is the first time Bush has left the White House to greet a foreign dignitary, and the first official papal visit
to the United States since the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the United States and the Vatican 24 years ago.
ABC News' Cokie Roberts
was invited to ride with the president, the first lady, and first daughter Jenna Bush, for his unprecedented trip from the White House to greet the pope at a military base in Maryland.
Roberts
writes, "The president said the pope is a worldwide spiritual leader and that millions of American citizens are excited about having him in this country and that he, the president, wanted to go to Andrews Air Force Base as a sign of respect.
He said the pope is major figure in the world and more people listen to him than anyone else in the world. "
Shakesville is marking the occasion with a photo caption contest. While Catholic Fire has a Catholic Carnival round up of several women covering and discussing the Pope's visit to the US.
Erin Kotecki Vest also blogs at Queen of Spain Blog
