It was a crocodile that crashed the plane

A crocodile running amok in the cabin was found to be the reason for the August 25 plane crash in DR Congo that killed 20 including the two pilots.

The bizzare incident happened when a crocodile escaped from a holdall in which a passenger was carrying the reptile, The Sun reported on Friday.

Although it was initially thought that the plane ran out of fuel, the lone survivor of the crash broke the news that it was in fact a crocodile that triggered the sequence of events that led to the crash.

The crocodile apparently escaped from the holdall of a passenger who was carrying to sell it.

Hell broke loose when a frightened air hostess ran to the front of the aircraft followed by rest of the passengers. This evidently led to the aircraft losing balance and nose-diving giving no chance for the two pilots at the controls.

The pilots, British national Chris Wilson, 39, and Belgian Danny Philemotte, 62, and 19 others on board died when the plane went down on a vacant house just 2 kilometres short of the Bandundu airport runway.

Although the creature survived the crash, it was killed by a machete wielded by rescuers sifting through the wreckage, the report said.

The Czech-built Let L-410 turbo-prop aircraft was flying from the Congo capital Kinshasa to regional airport Bandundu.