Tanzanian authorities said on Thursday (March 23rd) the pilots of a Precision Air plane, which crashed into Lake Victoria in November killing 19, had ignored automatic alerts about the plane's dangerous position .
Nineteen people were killed on November 6 when the plane, with 43 people on board, plunged into the waters of Africa's largest lake, prompting rescue operations by rescuers, fishermen and residents to try to recover survivors.
Promise of an investigation
The police had blamed the bad weather in this accident considered the worst in decades in Tanzania.
Faced with the anger caused by this accident, President Samia Suluhu Hassan had promised an investigation and ordered the strengthening of the country's emergency system.
In the second preliminary report published since the accident, the Ministry of Transport estimated Thursday that the on-board warning system used to detect the proximity of the ground (Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System or EGPWS) had issued three warnings signaling a rapid descent of the plane.
"
The alert was not followed by corrective action on the part of the crew
", assured the department of the ministry in charge of accident investigations, before adding that conversely the crew put the plane in a nose-down attitude.
The report states that the plane was flying in poor weather and with reduced visibility, which “
may have contributed to the lack of response to the alert
”.
Another report, published shortly after the accident, pointed to malfunctions in the rescue system, adding that more passengers could have been saved with better organisation.
