by Leonard Berberi
The plane crashed about 150 meters from Bukoka Airport. There were 43 people on board, of whom at least 26 were transported to the hospital. Bad weather prevailed on the site
An Atr 42-500 operated by Tanzania Precision Air crashed in the waters of Lake Victoria about 150 meters from the runway at Bukoba Airport in the African country. On board were 39 passengers (38 adults, 1 child), 2 pilots and 2 flight attendants: the final figure at the time of 19 dead and 24 survivors. The plane crashed into a shallow area around 8:53 a.m. (local time, 6:53 a.m. in Italy) and had departed from Dar es Salaam. According to official sources, the main cause would have been bad weather at the moment, but it is not possible to confirm this version at this time.
The official notice
Rescue operations are ongoing and we have yet to confirm the death toll, the company Precision Air said in a note on the PW494 flight confirming the accident. According to the weather charts on the lake, at the time of the approach to runway 31 of Bukoba Airport, there was a very strong storm with wind gusts of 43-45 kilometers per hour and visibility no more than 5 kilometers. At the moment it is not clear whether the pilots sent an alarm signal or everything happened suddenly. Precision Air has not responded to the courier’s questions at the time of publication of the article. A few hours later, it was revealed that the plane had attempted to land and that the plane had landed off the runway straight into the lake.
The certificates
As we approached Bukoba, the pilot warned us that the weather was not good, that it was raining heavily, so we drove past the airport towards the Ugandan border before turning back, he told local newspaper The Citizen Komba. Then we started descending to Bukoba, there was a lot of turbulence and it was still raining when suddenly we found ourselves in the lake. Komba recalls that water started to get in on board, a flight attendant helped us rear seated passengers open the hatch and so we were able to disembark, only to wait a long time in a boat for rescue to arrive. .
The enterprise
Established in 1993, Precision Air has passed all Iata safety tests. According to the Aviation Safety Network database, there were four crashes — in 1999, 2004, 2007 and 2014 — with no injuries after the accident on Sunday, November 6. The country has seen 15 fatal plane crashes since 1919, killing at least 97 people. The ditching of the Precision Air Atr is the second-highest-ever ditching in the African country after the 20 deaths in a May 18, 1955 flight aboard an East African Airways plane that crashed on Mount Kilimanjaro.
November 6, 2022 (change November 6, 2022 | 18:15)
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