Involuntary terrorist: how a crocodile became the culprit of a passenger plane crash

An amazing tragicomic incident occurred in August 2010 in the sky over the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A miniature Let L-410 Turbolet aircraft of the local airline Filair was flying to the city of Bandunda with 19 passengers and three crew members on board. When the plane was already preparing to land, people suddenly jumped up from their seats and rushed into the cockpit. The center of gravity shifted, the pilot lost control, and the plane crashed. The picture of what happened was restored thanks to the testimony of the sole survivor.

It turned out that one of the passengers was carrying a live crocodile in a sports bag. Obviously, he was hoping to sell it. The crocodile was small, but creepy enough to get out of the bag and cause panic on board.

Fleeing from the reptile, everyone ran into the cockpit, which caused the plane to nod and crash into an empty house a few hundred meters from the runway.

21 people died in the crash, including the Belgian pilot Daniel Filemott, who was the owner of the airline Filair. Ironically, the culprit of the crash survived. However, during the operation to recover bodies from the wreckage of the plane, rescuers shot the crocodile.