Reported by: Febechukwu
A Tanzanian passenger plane, Precision Air carrying 43 persons has crashed into Lake Victoria as it attempted to land in the lakeside town of Bukoba.
BBC reports that so far, 26 of the passengers have been rescued and sent to hospitals, while rescue workers and local fishermen on the scene continued to search for more survivors.
A witness at the Bank of the Lake said, the plane is almost completely submerged with only the brown and green tail fin above the water, surrounded by rescue workers and fishing boats.
Emergency workers are using ropes to try and pull the ATR 42-500 plane out of Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake.
A top Regional Officer, Albert Chalamia is quoted as saying: "We want to see if the landing gear is stuck, so that we can ask for more technical assistance to push it out of the waters".
One end of the runway at Bukoba Airport lies right next to the shore.
The plane was flying from Tanzania's biggest city, Das es Salaam, to Bukoba via Mwanza when it reportedly encountered a storm and heavy rains.
Precision Air which was founded in 1993, is Tanzania's largest private airline and is partly owned by Kenya Airways, that operates both domestic and regional flights.
