19 die as Tanzanian plane crashes into lake

NAIROBI — A plane crashed into Lake Victoria as it approached an airport in Tanzania on Sunday morning, killing 19 passengers, the country’s prime minister said. A senior policeman said it was raining when the aircraft plunged into the water.

Local authorities said earlier Sunday that 26 of the 43 people who were on the Precision Air flight from the coastal city of Dar es Salaam were rescued and taken to a hospital.

Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa later said the death toll had risen. It was not clear if the new toll included people who died at the hospital.

Photos showed the plane, which was headed to Bukoba Airport in the capital of Tanzania’s Kagera province, mostly submerged in the lake.

Precision Air is a Tanzanian company.

“We have managed to save quite a number of people,” Cmdr. William Mwampaghale of the Kagera province police told journalists. “When the aircraft was about 100 meters [328 feet] midair, it encountered problems and bad weather. It was raining, and the plane plunged into the water,” he said.

Mwampaghale said the rescue efforts were continuing.

AYO TV RESCUERS HELP passengers from a plane that crashed Sunday into Lake Victoria in Tanzania. The f light encountered bad weather, authorities say.