The presidential plane was shot down in Rwanda on April 6, 1994
| The presidential plane was shot down in Rwanda on April 6, 1994 | |
|---|---|
 an identically constructed Dassault Falcon 50 |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Launch |
| place | 2 km east of Kigali Airport |
| date | April 6, 1994 |
| Fatalities | 12 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Dassault Mystère-Falcon 50 |
| operator | Republic of Rwanda |
| Mark | 9XR-NN |
| Departure airport | Dar es Salaam airport |
| Destination airport | Kigali airport |
| Passengers | 9 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The shooting down of the presidential plane in Rwanda on April 6, 1994 is considered to be the external trigger for the genocide in Rwanda of numerous Tutsi by radical Hutu . The machine, a Dassault Mystère-Falcon 50 (registration number: 9XR-NN), was shot down with two surface-to-air missiles of the Soviet type SA-16 while approaching the airport in the capital Kigali . Head of state Juvénal Habyarimana was on the plane, returning from negotiations with rebels from the Tutsi-dominated Patriotique Rwandais Front .
In addition to Rwanda's President Habyarimana, Cyprien Ntaryamira (President of Burundi ), Déogratias Nsabimana (Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army), Elie Sagatwa, Thadée Bagaragaza, Juvénal Renzaho, Emmanuel Akingeneye, Bernard Ciza, Cyriaque Simpson, Pierre Miny Hererry and Jean Michel Perrine perished.
There are contradicting explanations about the background. Rumors were spread from the American side that the Hutu extremists mentioned were responsible. There was also talk of two French people in khaki who had been seen in the area. A former intelligence officer of the Tutsi gendarmerie described the perpetrators through a specially trained task force of the Tutsi armed forces. French research based on the identified serial numbers showed that the SAM-16 missiles used were spoils of the US Army from the 2nd Gulf War. A commission headed by Marc Trévidic, charged with investigating after the Tutsi came to power, found in 2012 that the rockets had been fired from Kanombe Hill near Kigali airport. There was the headquarters of the Habyarimana Presidential Guard.
Web links
- Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
- Video Analysis of Habyarimana Plane Crash on YouTube , video with reconstruction of the downing of the plane
Coordinates: 1 ° 58 ′ 32 ″ S , 30 ° 10 ′ 26 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pierre Lepidi: Au Rwanda, 25 ans après le génocide, la résidence du président tué n'a pas livré tous ses secrets. Le Monde from April 5, 2019
- ^ Paul Kagame killed President Juvenal Habyarimana. In: Tribune Franco-Rwandaise. October 1, 2011, accessed December 22, 2014 .
- ^ Peter Scholl-Latour: African death suit: the sell-out of the black continent , Munich: Bertelsmann, 2001, 9th edition, p. 82, ISBN 978-3-570-00544-6
- ↑ The downing of the plane that started the genocide. In: Tages-Anzeiger . April 7, 2014, accessed December 22, 2014 .