The death toll from a plane crash on Sunday had climbed to 19, Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said, after the Precision Air flight with dozens of passengers aboard plunged into Lake Victoria while approaching the northwestern city of Bukoba.
“All Tanzanians are with you in mourning the 19 people who lost lives during this accident,” Majaliwa told a crowd after arriving at Bukoba airport, where the flight had been scheduled to land from financial capital, Dar es Salaam.
Regional authorities earlier said that 26 survivors out of the 43 people on board Flight PW494 had been pulled to safety and taken to hospital in the lakeside city, but Precision Air, a publicly listed company which is Tanzania’s largest private carrier, said in a statement that 24 people had survived the accident, with an airline official saying that the other two hospitalized patients were not aboard the plane to begin with.
Photo: AFP
“There are two people who were injured during rescue efforts who have been counted as survivors, but they were not passengers,” he said on condition of anonymity.
The airline said it had dispatched rescuers and investigators to the scene, and expressed its “deepest sympathies” over the accident, which occurred at about 8:53am on Sunday.
The company said the aircraft was an ATR 42-500, manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian firm ATR, and had 39 passengers — including an infant — and four crew members on board.
Video footage broadcast on local media showed the plane largely submerged as rescuers, including fishers, waded through water to bring people to safety.
Emergency workers attempted to lift the aircraft out of the water using ropes, assisted by cranes as residents also sought to help.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed her condolences to those affected by the accident, saying: “We pray to god to help us.”
The disaster ranks among the deadliest plane crashes in the East African nation’s history.
The US embassy in Dar es Salaam released a statement, paying tribute to “the heroic efforts of first responders, especially ordinary citizens who helped rescue victims.”
African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat also shared his condolences, as did East African Community Secretary-General Peter Mathuki.
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 Serengeti National Park and the Zanzibar archipelago.
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