After 85 killed, Congo pulls airline's license

KINSHASA, Congo - Congo's ministry of transport has canceled the license of the country's largest airline after a crash last week killed 85 people.

A ministry communique read on state TV late Thursday said that Hewa Bora's license "has been suspended until further notice" while the government investigates the crash.

The company's plane crashed last Friday in a thunderstorm as it was attempting to land at the Kisangani airport in eastern Congo. In 2008 a DC-9 owned by the same company rammed into a market, killing at least 40 people. A few months later, one of its planes went down, killing 17.

Congo has one of the worst air safety records in the world. Few passable roads traverse the country after decades of war, forcing the population to rely on ill-maintained planes and boats.