An Iljushin 76 crashed shortly after taking off this morning from Entebbe for the Somali capital of Mogadishu, carrying 11 crew and African Union contingent personnel. Officials from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority say the Mogadishu bound plane that had just taken off from Entebbe airport caught fire and plunged into Lake Victoria, 9 kilometers from the airport.
The aircraft was reportedly flying a full cargo of materials and supplies to Somalia to restock the AU force’s stores. The aircraft with the registration 9S – SAB was chartered for the purpose. By the time of going to press there was no news of survivors and only floating debris was found scattered in the waters of Lake Victoria. A Burundi army spokesman confirmed three of its soldiers – a brigadier general, a colonel, and a captain – had died. It is feared that all 11 on board have perished. The UPDF marine unit and CAA rescue teams were dispatched for a recovery mission and were still on site by mid-day of Monday.
Uganda has for some time now enforced ICAO rules on registration of aged and in particular Soviet-era planes and refused to register any of them in Uganda. However, no ban has been enforced as yet on such aircraft actually flying in and out of Uganda while on the registry of other countries. Only recently did an Antonov aircraft crash in Luxor, having flown out of Entebbe only hours earlier and then came down when attempting to take off again after refueling. Pressure will undoubtedly grow on the Ugandan CAA now to enforce a complete ban on such aircraft operating in Uganda’s airspace, this being the second crash within two weeks of flights originating in Entebbe.
