At least 19 people have been confirmed dead following a Precision Air plane crash into Lake Victoria while attempting to land at Bukoba Airport.
The airline said 24 passengers have been rescued.
According to The Citizen Tanzania, the dead include cabin crew and passengers. It is not clear whether the dead were all passengers or some were part of the rescue team.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Sunday that an investigation has been ordered.
The investigation will come to the bottom of the discrepancy in the number of those on board.
The plane was reportedly under the stewardship of Captain Buruhani Rubaga.
The cause of the crash is yet to be known but unconfirmed reports have attributed it to bad weather.
Survivor narrates the moment before the plunge
One of the passengers aboard the ill-fated Precision Air flight that has left 19 passengers dead so far has narrated what actually happened to the plane.
Patched on his hospital bed, a calm and collected Richard Komba says they left Dar es Salaam at around 0615Hrs and all seemed well between Dar and Mwanza, the weather was just fine.
“As we approached Bukoba, the pilot alerted us that the weather was not fine and that it was raining heavily so we went past Bukoba towards the border with Uganda before we could turn back,” said Komba.
According to him on return, they were alerted that in the event that the weather was still not good the captain would be left with no choice but to go back to Mwanza.
“Soon we began our descent on Bukoba Airport, there was so much turbulence and it was still raining heavily and soon without any warning we found ourselves in the water,” said Komba.
He says that with the plunge soon the water started spilling into the aircraft and he was lucky to have been at the back.
“We had a cabin crew with us who helped us open the emergence exit and soon we found ourselves outside the aircraft.”
But that perhaps was their easier part because it took a long wait before any help could arrive and even when it came it was a hand-paddled wooden boat used by fishermen on the lake.
“There was no immediate evacuation plan and we got worried that the boat could be overwhelmed,” said Komba.
Source: Citizen TV
