CNN
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A Tanzanian industrial flight operated by Precision Air crash-landed in dangerous climate in Lake Victoria on Sunday, killing 19 individuals.
The nation’s Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa, mentioned officers consider all our bodies have been recovered from the airplane.
“We’re starting to pull out the luggage and personal items from the aircraft. A team of doctors and security agencies have started the process of identifying the dead and notifying the families,” Majaliwa mentioned.
The airline confirmed the demise toll and amended the variety of survivors right down to 24 in an up to date assertion on Sunday night. Earlier, the service in addition to native officers had mentioned that 26 of the 43 individuals on board had been rescued.
“Precision Air extends its deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the passenger and crew involved in this tragic incident. The company will strive to provide them with information and whatever assistance they will require in their difficult time,” the airline mentioned.
“The names of passengers and crew on board the aircraft will not be released until all next-of-kin have been notified,” it added.
The flight, together with 39 passengers and 4 crew members, had taken off from Tanzania’s industrial capital of Dar es Salaam and was headed to the city of Bukoba earlier than it plunged into Lake Victoria because it was making ready to land.
Video circulating on social media taken by onlookers on the shores of Lake Victoria confirmed the plane submerged within the water with emergency responders coordinating rescue efforts from close by boats.
Precision Air CEO Patrick Mwanri appeared visibly distressed whereas talking to reporters in Dar es Salaam Sunday.
Mwanri’s voice broke and he needed to pause to wipe away tears as he mentioned the airplane had departed round 6 a.m. native and had been anticipated within the northwestern lakeside city of Bukoba at 8.30 a.m.
“But at 8.53 a.m. our Operations Control Center got a report that that aircraft had not arrived,” he mentioned in a televised assertion.
The accident is believed to have occurred on the ultimate strategy to the airport whose runway begins proper subsequent to Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake.
Local officers prompt dangerous climate might have performed an element within the accident, saying the world had been underneath heavy rainfall and powerful winds on the time.
The regional airline has opened a Crisis Management Center and established info areas in Bukoba and Dar es Salaam to speak with households of the passengers.
Following information of the crash, Tanzania’s President took to social media to name for calm whereas rescuers labored on the website of a downed airplane.
“I have received with sadness the information of the crash of the Precision Air flight at Lake Victoria, in the Kagera region,” President Samia Suluhu Hassan wrote on Twitter Sunday.
“I send my condolences to all those affected by this incident. Let’s continue to be calm as the rescue operation continues and we pray to God to help us.”
Precision Air is a Tanzanian airline primarily based out of Dar es Salaam.