Precision Air crash on Lake Victoria

On 6 November 2022, while on final approach to Bukoba Airport, Tanzania, at 08:53 hours local time, the crew of Precision Air flight PW494 (operated by ATR42 5H-PWF, msn 819) encountered poor visibility due to heavy rain fall.

Under circumstances that need to be clarified, the airplane descended too low, impacted the water surface of Lake victoria and crashed, a few hundred metres short of runway 31.

Fishermen with several boats were quickly on the scene to recover the 43 persons onboard (four crew and 39 passengers). Too late for nineteen of them as they sadly did not survive the impact. The aircraft sank by a depth about 3-4 metres. The ATR had left Dar es Salaam International Airport, Tanzania, earlier in the day.

The airline said that 26 of the 43 people onboard had been rescued, so that means the two other victims must have been not on board or not on the manifest. Tanzania's Prime Minister has stated they will investigate where the other two bodies came from. 

After the crash this statement was released: “We’re trying to pull out the aircraft from the water. We’re trying to check if the wheels hit the ground under water or figure out some other way to push it out of the lake. At this time, there is still communication from the cockpit. The pilots are still in contact with us.”