In Tanzania, at least 19 people are dead after a small passenger plane plunged into Lake Victoria on Sunday due to bad weather. The plane, carrying 43 people, was on approach to the airport in the northwest city of Bukoba.
Forty-three people were on board the aircraft, including two pilots and two cabin crew as well as 38 adult passengers and one infant. The ATR 42 aircraft was flying from the city of Dar es Salaam to the Kagera region before it crashed into Lake Victoria.
The plane, operated by Precision Air, crashed about 100 meters from the Bukoba airport where it was supposed to land. Video shared on social media shows the plane almost fully submerged in the water as rescue teams and fishermen in small boats try to reach the passengers.
Emergency workers and civilians also used small boats and ropes to pull the aircraft closer to the shore of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake. According to the airline, a team of investigators and officials from the airport authority were sent to the area to join the efforts. Patrick Mwanri is the managing director of Precision Air.
He said, “We have opened our crisis management center with the country’s rescue authorities ensuring that the rescue operation goes well.” Mwanri added, “We have also established two information centers for communicating with the victims’ families; one in Bukoba and the other here in Dar es Salaam. These will be used to inform the passengers [and families of] victims of all the necessary updates.”
Kagera regional commissioner Albert Chalamila has been monitoring the operation. Chalamila said, “We still have communications with pilots inside the plane and the pilots are continuing with the communications. So, he added that, we are continuing to pray to God and through the technologies, we have informed our leaders on the issue.”
In a Twitter post, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan asked citizens to maintain calm.
The president wrote, “I have received with sadness the news of the accident involving Precision Air’s plane.” She added, “Let’s be calm at this moment when rescuers are continuing with the rescue mission while praying to God to help us.”
The incident comes five years after a plane owned by a safari company, Coastal Aviation, crashed in northern Tanzania. Eleven people were killed. Founded in 1993, Precision Air is Tanzania’s largest private airline. The company is partly owned by Kenya Airways and operates domestic and regional flights.
