On 29 January 2025, a Beechcraft 1900D operated by Eagle Air on behalf of Light Air Services, performing a regularly scheduled charter flight, crashed in Unity State, located in the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan shortly after takeoff, killing 20 of the 21 occupants onboard. The aircraft was carrying oil workers, transporting them to the South Sudanese capital Juba.

The aircraft involved in the accident was a 23 year old turboprop twin engine Beechcraft 1900D originally registered as N60069 before being delivered to Uganda airline Eagle Air in 2016. The aircraft was stored until it was sold in 2017 to Light Air Services registered as 5X-RHB.

There were 21 people aboard the aircraft; 19 passengers and 2 pilots. Sixteen of the passengers were South Sudanese, while one Indian, two Chinese nationals and two Ugandan crew were also on board. The aircraft was operated by Light Air Services aviation company and was chartered by the passengers' employer, the Chinese petroleum firm Greater Pioneer Oil Company (GPOC), which is a consortium of China National Petroleum Corporation and Nile Petroleum Corporation.

The aircraft was performing a regularly scheduled charter flight. At around 10:30 am local time, the aircraft lost height and crashed into the ground around 10 minutes after takeoff at a distance of 500 meters from its airport of origin. A witness reported that the wing had snapped off bringing the aircraft down. Twenty of the 21 people on board were killed, including two who later died in hospital, with the lone survivor identified as South Sudanese engineer Emmanuel Maker who was taken to the state hospital in Bentiu in critical condition. Images of the crash site showed the aircraft upside down in a remote field.

Saleh Akot, the director of Juba International Airport, said that the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority deployed a team to the crash site to start the investigation. South Sudan Oil Minister Puot Kang Chol said an investigation into the cause of crash is underway, with his ministry cooperating with the Ministry of Transport, other local authorities and emergency services to ensure that a thorough examination is conducted. Authorities have not yet disclosed preliminary findings on the cause of the crash. Ter Manyang Gatwech, head of the Center for Peace and Advocacy (CPA), alleged that the accident was caused by the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority's poor enforcement of safety standards, allowing aging and outdated aircraft to fly in South Sudan.

The National Minister of Transport said its air crash investigation department will retrieve the flight recorder from the wreckage of the crash and send it to the United States for further analysis.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia expressed condolences in a press statement.