A plane crashed yesterday after trying to land in western Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 19 people although two survived, a deputy provincial governor said.

The Filair Let-410 twin turboprop crashed just before 1200 GMT after failing to land at Bandundu after a 300-kilometre flight from the capital Kinshasa, and apparently running out of fuel, Vicky Mboso Muteba said.

“They have brought out the people, we have 19 bodies in the morgue and two survivors,” said Ms Mboso, the deputy governor of Bandundu province, northeast of Kinshasa.

The owner of the private airline Filair, Belgian Daniel Philemotte, 62, was at the controls and was among those killed, along with the co-pilot and stewardess, he added.

Ms Mboso said that after an abortive attempt to land, the aircraft turned away and crashed towards the edge of Bandundu city, hitting a house whose residents had managed to flee in time.

There was no explosion, said Ms Mboso, who was one of the first to arrive on the site along with soldiers from the UN mission in the country (MONUC).

“Subject to expert opinion ... the presumed cause could be a lack of fuel,” he said.

The Czech-made Let-410 normally carries up to 19 passengers.

An official of Kinshasa’s small city-centre Ndolo airport, from which the flight took off, confirmed the crash, but did not provide any additional information.

Congo’s aviation sector, which is littered with ageing Soviet-era planes, is generally viewed as being in a chronic state of disrepair and crashes are frequent.

All of the country’s 50-odd registered airlines have been placed on a European Union blacklist, banning them from flying into European airspace.

A Belgian diplomat in Kinshasa said Mr Philemotte was a well-known businessman in the country, and had recently married a Congolese.