A plane with 43 people on board sank in Tanzania's Lake Victoria early Sunday due to inclement weather shortly before landing in the northwestern city of Bukoba, police said, and efforts are being made to rescue those on board.
Accident involving a Precision Air plane that crashed into the water about 100 meters from the airport," regional police commander William Mwampaghale told reporters at Bukoba Airport in the Kagera region. "As we speak, we have managed to rescue 26 people who have been taken to our referral hospital," Chalamila said.
"The rescue operation is ongoing and we are communicating with the pilots," he said, adding that more details will be shared later. Precision Air, the largest private airline in Tanzania, issued a brief statement confirming the accident.
The rescue team has been dispatched to the scene and more information will be released within two hours," the airline said. Video footage broadcast on local media showed the plane largely submerged as rescuers waded through the water to get people to safety. Rescuers tried to pull the plane out of the water using cranes and ropes.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed her condolences to those affected by the accident. "Let's keep calm as the rescue operation continues while we pray to God to help us," he said on Twitter. Precision Air, part of Kenya Airways, was established in 1993 and operates domestic, regional and private charter flights to popular tourist destinations such as Serengeti National Park and the Zanzibar Archipelago.
The accident came five years after a Coastal Aviation plane crashed in northern Tanzania, killing 11,people. In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines plane from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed in a field southeast of the Ethiopian capital six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.
In 2007, a Kenya Airways plane flying from Abidjan, Ivory Coast to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, crashed into a swamp after taking off, killing all 114 passengers. In 2000, another Kenya Airways plane flying from Abidjan to Nairobi crashed into the Atlantic. minutes after launch, killing 169 people while 10 survived.