French air accident investigators are expected to arrive in Bukoba, Tanzania soon to take part in an investigation into the cause of the Precision Air plane crash that happened on Sunday. The plane plunged into Lake Victoria during storms and heavy rain, on a second attempt to make the ill-fated landing as it arrived from Dar es Salaam. The crash led to the death of 19 passengers including a Rwandan. A senior official for France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) air accident investigation agency was quoted on Monday saying that it was sending a team to Tanzania along with technical advisers from Franco-Italian plane maker ATR. The plane, which crashed in Lake Victoria, was an ATR 42-500 turboprop made by the company. Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said investigators had launched a probe into what had happened and experts say that the investigations could take months. The plane was designed in France and as per international laws, the French are obliged to be part of the investigations into what led to the accident. Wreckage extracted Meanwhile, Tanzanian authorities on Tuesday said the wreckage of a plane has been pulled out of the water. We have completely removed the plane out of the water and now the professional investigation into the cause of the accident is underway, the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) said in a statement. Bukoba Airport will also be reopened soon to allow aviation operations to continue as usual, it added. Video footage broadcast on local media showed the plane's twisted wreckage being pulled up by a crane, its nose collapsing towards the ground, before it was deposited on a patch of grass. Precision Air, a publicly listed company and Tanzania's largest private carrier, said the aircraft was an ATR 42-500, manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian firm ATR, and had 39 passengers -- including an infant -- and four crew members on board. Twenty-four survived out of the 43 people aboard flight PW 494. In a related development, regional leaders met at the sidelines of the ongoing COP27 conference in Egypt and offered their condolences to the families of the deceased.
