A picture of an Antonov 22 shortly after it “safely landed” at Juba International Airport on Thursday, 20 May 2021 | Credit | Courtesy

A cargo plane made a safe emergency landing at Juba International Airport Thursday morning after one of its propellers fell off midair.

The plane was flying to Upper Nile state from Juba via Jonglei state. It returned to Juba midair.

The single propeller plugged off in the sky and landed near some engineers working on Juba-Bor road in Cuei-keer Payam, east of Bor County, Jonglei State.

A propeller that plugged off a flying plane nearly hit ARC engineers working on Juba-Bor road in Cue-keer Payam, East of Bor County in Jongolei State.

Eye witnesses say the plane was heading toward South Sudan capital Juba. The plane has safely arrive at JIA. #southsudan pic.twitter.com/G0jhEeLtjs

— Eye Radio (@EyeRadioJuba) May 20, 2021

One of the engineers, who witnessed the incident, told Eye Radio that the plane made a turn over them when its propeller fell.

Engineer James Nyok said they saw a huge smoke and suddenly an object flew towards them. The object nearly hit the engineers.

“That propeller missed us just by about 200 meters. It fell at a place called Cuei-keer,” Nyok said.

“Something Normal”

The director of Juba International Airport confirmed that the plane landed safely in Juba.

Kur Kuol told Eye Radio that the Antonov 26 was heading to Paloch but made a U-turn after the propeller fell off.

“It is a cargo plan and it came back to juba and landed safely. Nothing has happened. The plane came with one propeller, and it is something normal,”

It is still not clear which company owns the plane.

In March, the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority said it would screen all airline operators in the country to stop the recurrence of plane crashes.