19 dead after Tanzanian plane crashes in Africa’s largest lake
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
43 people, including 39 passengers, two pilots and two cabin crew, were aboard flight PW 494 from financial capital Dar es Salaam to the lakeside city in Kagera region.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Follow topic:
DAR ES SALAAM - Nineteen people died after a passenger plane crashed into Africa’s largest lake on approach to an airport in northwestern Tanzania, Radio One cited Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa as saying.
The ATR turboprop aircraft was carrying 39 passengers from Tanzania’s commercial hub of Dar es Salaam to Bukoba.
Images shared by East African media showed the aircraft seemingly intact after plunging into Lake Victoria, which borders Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
Authorities are in touch with pilots still inside the plane and discussing the possibility of towing it to land, regional commissioner Albert Chalamila said earlier in a televised press briefing.
“We have managed to rescue 26 people who were taken to our referral hospital,” Mr Chalamila said.
“The rescue operation is still ongoing and we are communicating with the pilots,” he said, adding that the aircraft was an ATR-42, manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian firm ATR.
Precision Air, which is Tanzania’s largest private airline, released a brief statement confirming the accident.
“The rescue team has been dispatched to the scene... ” the airline said.
Video footage broadcast on local media showed the plane largely submerged as rescuers, including fishermen, waded through water to bring people to safety.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed her condolences to those affected by the accident.
“Let’s continue to be calm while the rescue operation continues as we pray to God to help us,” she said on Twitter.
The African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat also shared his condolences, as did Mr Peter Mathuki, the secretary general of the regional East African Community bloc.
“Our hearts and prayers go to the families of passengers on-board a plane that crashed into Lake Victoria, with our full solidarity to the government & people of Tanzania,” he said on Twitter.
“The East African Community joins and sends our condolences to Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan, families and friends of all those who were affected by the Precision Air plane accident,” Mr Mathuki said on Twitter.
Rescue operations underway after a plane crashed into Lake Victoria in Tanzania on Nov 6, 2022.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Precision Air, which is partly owned by Kenya Airways, was founded in 1993 and operates domestic and regional flights as well as private charters to popular tourist destinations such as the Serengeti National Park and the Zanzibar archipelago.
The accident comes five years after 11 people died when a plane belonging to safari company Coastal Aviation crashed in northern Tanzania.
In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi plunged six minutes after take-off
In 2007, a Kenya Airways flight from the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan to Kenya’s capital Nairobi crashed into a swamp after take-off, killing all 114 passengers. AFP, BLOOMBERG
