Joseph Makundi, the coordinator of rescue services in Goma, told Reuters that 27 bodies had been recovered from the rubble, including those of several people hit by falling debris.

“I was at a restaurant with my family when I saw the plane spinning three times in the air and emitting a lot of smoke,” said Djemo Medar, a witness in Goma’s Mapendo neighborhood. “After that, we saw the plane crash into this house,” he said pointing to a nearby building.

“We know the pilot. His name is Didier,” he added. “He was shouting, ‘Help me, Help me.’ But we had no way to get to him because the fire was so powerful,” Mr. Medar said.

Placide Kambale, a local pilot, told The Associated Press that he took a taxi to the site to help out. When he got there, the plane was on fire.

“I called other young people from the neighborhood,” he said. “They helped me to try to remove those who still moved. We have managed to recover two that was quickly sent to the hospital,” he added, but then the fire expanded.

At the crash site, residents threw water from buckets and cooking pots onto the smoldering wreckage.

The police arrested one man suspected of stealing cash from the rubble and fired warning shots to disperse people who had started looting, Mr. Medar said.