AFR: 11 dead as plane crashes into Lake Victoria
10 Mar 2009 12:57 AM
Eds: Updates toll, ADDS colour, quotes
ENTEBBE, Uganda, March 9 AFP - A Soviet-era jet caught fire and crashed into Lake Victoria Monday after taking off from Uganda's main airport, killing 11 people, including three top Burundi army officers, officials said.
The burning Ilyushin 76 plunged into the nearby lake as it left for the Somali capital of Mogadishu at dawn.
Uganda's Information Minister, Kabakumba Masiko, said three Burundians, two Ugandans, one Indian and a South African as well as a crew of four were on board.
Russsian media reported two Russian and two Ukrainian crew members were among those killed.
Although Masiko said no bodies had yet been recovered, the country's Civil Aviation Authority spokesman, Ignia Igundura, said: "All people on board are feared dead."
A rescue operation was launched with speedboats moving around the wreckage and civil aviation, military and Red Cross teams at the scene.
Teams of police and army divers took turns in the search but were yet to retrieve any bodies, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.
Sheets of metal, a pair of aircraft wheels and other debris were washed ashore, but the body of the plane remained submerged.
"We will get a clear picture of the extent of the operation at the end of the day," said Vian Luddya, the deputy spokesman of the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority.
Two boats were struck by the careering plane, injuring four fishermen, the minister said.
"There were two boats in the water as the plane went down. Both boats are destroyed. Four fishermen in those boats somehow survived and they are being treated by the government," Masiko explained.
The aircraft was operated by a firm known as Aerolift, according to Uganda's Civil Aviation Authority.
Burundi army spokesman Adolphe Manirakiza said the three Burundian officers on the plane included a brigadier general and a colonel.
"They were on board (the) plane and, according to information we are receiving, fire broke out on board and then the plane crashed," Manirakiza explained.
The three officers were part of the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia, known as AMISOM, and were travelling with Ugandan troops, Manirakiza said. Uganda's military spokesman confirmed the details.
The deputy commander of Burundi's contingent in Somalia, Nicolas Bwakira, said they received the news of the crash with "sadness and shock".
"Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that there are survivors," he added.
Monday's plane crash was the latest setback to the mission. On February 22, 11 Burundian troops were killed and 15 wounded in a suspected suicide attack on their base in southern Mogadishu.
The AU deployed forces in the Somali capital in March 2007 to help pacify the war-wracked country, but have come under repeated attacks by hardline Islamist insurgent groups.
The effectiveness of the AU mission has been hampered by under-funding and lack of equipment as Somalia's civil war, dating back to 1991, drags on.
Somalia has had no central government since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a dealy clan rivalry and fighting which has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.
