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Here's a primer on African airlines and this article discusses those in the business of carrying passengers and doesn't address the shadier operators.

The crash at Cotonou in West Africa of a Boeing 727 passenger plane belonging to a Guinea airline, piloted by a Libyan crew and without a proper flying licence, highlights problems of flying in Africa, experts say.

The Christmas Day crash in the African state of Benin killed 113 people, most of them Lebanese expatriates heading home for the holidays.

The plane, owned by Union des Transports Africains, botched its takeoff and skidded down the runway, smashing into a building before tumbling into the Gulf of Guinea.

"In these countries there is no structure for working practices or for maintaining checks on operations," said Francois Grangier, a French accident investigation specialist.

"They don't have the idea of airports as places sealed off, closed and given over totally to aeronautics," said Grangier, an Air France pilot.

"Neither is there any framework for radio communication, ie for navigation means," he said. "And there is no administration for this almost non-existent structure, only a semblance of organisation that exists solely on paper."

"Physical conditions are very tough for planes," Grangier said. "Sometimes you're landing on territory that destroys tyres, storms can be violent, corrosion is a major factor."

"But these African companies have an extremely unstable financial basis and they only want to make money, not to spend it, so it's tempting to get a hold of any old plane that can be exploited cheaply."

Pilot qualifications are yet another problem.

"The pilots are of all different nationalities because they can't find any other work," he said.

"African states don't have any pilots' schools or proper crew training facilities, so these pilots have to be trained abroad."

Thus African states end up giving the equivalent of licences or work permits to pilots with licences acquired in foreign countries, "something which a Europoean state such as France would never tolerate", Grangier noted.

Maxime Coffin, head of training and technical surveillance at France's civil aviation authority DGAC, identified problems such as obsolete fleets, pilots willing to work to lower standards and a lack of aircraft maintenance.

But Coffin insisted that flying is still the safest way to travel through Africa and denied some planes are just flying rustbuckets.

He said the norms of the International Civil Aviation Authority are more precise and kept under better surveillance than those of the International Maritime Organisation.

Unlike ships, he noted, planes cannot fly under flags of convenience. -- Sapa-

Thanks for that post, very interesting.

I ran across a news story that said this plane (or maybe it was the entire "fleet" of UTA) was technically not authorized to land in Lebanon due to (IIRC) certain missing mechanical certifications (?).

It went on to say that an air transport agreement between Guinea and Lebanon overrode the specific problems with UTA.

I also read somewhere that some of these "retired" AA 727-223's were sold for less than $1 million, so yes, I'm sure they were trying to recoup the investment by avoiding maint and overloading and running unscheduled "charters" (which this particular flight was).

A little off-topic, but I've seen a lot of funny business while working in SE Asia, though a good friend with 10+ years in Africa confirms that it's even more bizarre, if that's possible.

Maxime Coffin, head of training and technical surveillance at France's civil aviation authority DGAC, identified problems such as obsolete fleets, pilots willing to work to lower standards and a lack of aircraft maintenance.

But Coffin insisted that flying is still the safest way to travel through Africa and denied some planes are just flying rustbuckets.

Very well, flying coffins.