The scene of plane crash in Pieri area of Jonglei that killed all onboard in March 2021 - CREDIT | Courtesy

The High Court in Juba has ordered that the case against Supreme Airlines be heard without the results of the investigation into the Pieri plane crash.

In March, a commercial plane belonging to Ayii Duang killed at least 10 people after it crashed in the Pieri area in Uror County.

Officials said the plane with the registration number HK 4274 was returning to Juba via Yuai and Pibor took off but took a dive and crashed a few minutes later.

Those who died include two children, six women, and two pilots – a South Sudanese and Kenyan.

Two months later after the plane crash, the director of the South Supreme Airlines backtracked on his earlier pledge to compensate the victims’ families.

Ayii Duang argued that his company could not compensate everyone until full investigations were done.

He claimed that some of the passengers boarded the plane without the knowledge of the company.

Ayii also said the South Supreme Airlines is not responsible for an incident that came as a result of negligence by the pilots or the passengers.

However, the presiding Judge, James Lado Jada, said yesterday that the court has decided to cancel this legal argument and continuing the lawsuit.

“The court is the one with the jurisdiction to settle all disputes, as it owns the whole, so whoever owns the whole owns the part. Therefore, we decided to cancel this legal argument and continuing the lawsuit,” Judge James said.

“The court decides a session to formulate the dispute and hearing the case of the prosecution and the parties have the right to appeal against the court’s decision.”

The hearing has been slated for the 13^th of this month.