Tanzania: plane with 43 occupants falls into Lake Victoria; 26 people are rescued alive

An airliner with 43 people on board crashed into Lake Victoria on Sunday. Tanzaniadue to bad weather, before landing in the city of Bukoba, the authorities indicated, adding that rescue operations are underway.

“There was an accident with a Precision Air company passenger plane that […] It crashed into the water about 100 meters from the airport.” regional police chief William Mwampaghale told the press at Bukoba airport.

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Regional commissioner Albert Chalamila specified that 43 people, including 39 passengers, two pilots and two crew members, were on board the flight that left Dar es Salaam, the economic capital of the country, to Bukoba, located on the edge of the lake, and where the source of the Nile is located.

Ndege Precision Air ikivutwa kutoka ndani ya maji katika Ziwa Victoria. pic.twitter.com/XtDHmEezQ2

— Swahili Times (@swahilitimes) November 6, 2022

“So far, we have been able to save 26 people who have been evacuated to a hospital,” added Chalamila, who stressed that the “rescue operation is ongoing.”

According to him, the accident plane would be an ATR 42. This model is manufactured by the French-Italian company ATR and is assembled in Toulouse, in the south of France.

Videos released in the local media show the plane partially submerged, while rescuers in the water try to save the survivors. You can also see how they try, with cables and cranes, to lift the plane and get it out of the water.

Precision Air flight plunges into Lake Victoria when landing at Bukoba Airport in Tanzania, authorities say rescue operations underway

????: Courtesy pic.twitter.com/WJLYfGeVjw

— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) November 6, 2022

condolences

President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed her condolences to the people affected by the accident and called for “calm during the rescue operations.”

Precision Air, Tanzania’s largest private airline, issued a brief statement confirming the accident.

The company, which is partly owned by Kenya Airways, was founded in 1993 and operates domestic and regional flights, as well as tourist charters.

Its fleet is made up of nine aircraft (3 ATR 42-500, 1 ATR 42-600 and 5 ATR 72-500). It is unknown what type of ATR 42 was involved in the accident.

The incident comes five years after 11 people were killed when a plane belonging to a safari company crashed in northern Tanzania.

In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Adias Ababa to Nairobi crashed six minutes after taking off from the Ethiopian capital, killing all 157 people on board.

In 2007, a Kenya Airways flight between the Ivorian city of Abidjan and Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, crashed after takeoff, killing all 114 on board.

In 2000, another Kenya Airways flight from Abidjan to Nairobi crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff, killing 169 people but ten others surviving.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.