Mystery jet ... Zimbabwean armed soldiers patrol around the US-registered cargo plane at Harare International Airport. Picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP
ZIMBABWE aviation authorities impounded a US-registered cargo jet with a dead body and millions of South African rand reportedly on board.
The plane registered with Florida-based Western Global Airlines was impounded at Harare International Airport on Sunday.
Zimbabwean police initially arrested the six crew which includes two Americans, a South African and a Pakistani.
Although it is now believed the dead body was a stowaway and that crew the did not know there was someone else on the plane, according to a police officer, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the press.
It appears from photos on social media that the dead person had sneaked into the plane’s landing gear which severed his arm when it contracted, causing blood to splatter onto the fuselage and arousing suspicion of the ground crew when the flight landed.
Stowaway ... It is thought that the dead person had sneaked into the plane’s landing gear. Picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/APSource:AP
The Herald, a state-run newspaper, reported that the MD-11 trijet was travelling from Germany to South Africa “with millions of rands.” At today’s exchange rate, 1 million rand is worth $87,400. Authorities here learned the money belonged to the South Africa Reserve Bank, the country’s central bank.
In a response to AP queries, Western Global Airlines said it didn’t have the identity of the dead person, believed to be a stowaway.
South Africa’s ambassador to Zimbabwe Vusi Mavimbela confirmed that the cargo belonged to the South African Reserve Bank but refused to divulge further details, saying he was still liaising with the Zimbabwe government to resolve the matter. He refused to divulge the nature of the cargo or the amount of money that was in the plane.
In 2004, Harare airport authorities impounded a plane with 64 people on board, who were arrested on accusations that they had been on their way to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
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