Scene of the crash that killed all onboard/Courtesy

A lawyer has appealed to Juba County Court to decide upon the case against South Supreme Airlines, whose plane crashed and killed 10 people two years ago, for its absenting from several hearing sessions.

In March 2021, a commercial plane registered as HK 4274, belonging to businessman Ayii Duang Ayii killed at least 10 people after it crashed in the Pieri airstrip, in Uror County of Jonglei State.

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

Officials said the plane that was returning to Juba via Yuai and Pibor took off but nosedived and crashed a few minutes later.

Two months after the tragic crash, the director of South Supreme Airlines Ayii Duang pledged to compensate the families of the crash victims.

But, Ayii backtracked from the promise to pay reparation for the Pieri plane crash, prompting the victims’ families to take the matter to court.

Currently, the hearing in the case has reached the final stages and the Malakia court is expected to decide on the matter.

But Advocate Monyluak Alor Kuol of the Liberty Advocates said the defendant’s lawyers have failed to produce witnesses and have continuously absented themselves from the court proceeding.

He appealed to the court to close the case and made a final ruling.

“If you have been following this case now its two years, for the last two months the defendant South Sudan Supreme airline was asked to bring their last witness according to their request but they continuously absented themselves from the session,” said Alor.

“Today (Friday) session was made for the witness. They received the court order and they know today, there is court session so our request to the court today was to close the case of the defense and take it time to make a decision.”

The court on Friday adjourned the session up to November 4.

The Defense lawyer of Ayii Duang is yet to comment on the complaints.

For his part, John Keel Mayol, a representative of families of the victims said they are demanding reparation for the loss of their dear ones.

“We are still patient, and the company officials did not sympathize or even visited us at the time of events and we demand blood compensation for our family members,” he said.

“We are waiting for the final court decision. We, the families of the victims, now have two years in court and they postpone the hearings and sometimes they do not attend the hearings.”