| Military plane crash-lands on Segera highway, kills 2 | Send to a friend |
| Tuesday, 29 June 2010 23:52 |
 By Lucas Liganga, Dar and George Sembony, TangaA Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) pilot and his trainee died yesterday after their plane crash-landed on the Segera-Chalinze highway, narrowly avoiding head-on collisions with a bus and a truck carrying 23 foreign tourists. Eyewitnesses said the plane crashed onto the road at around 10.10 am, and nearly collided with a truck carrying 19 tourists from Holland and four from Kenya, who were accompanied and a Tanzanian guide. The party was travelling from Lushoto in Tanga to Dar es Salaam to board a boat to Zanzibar, when the accident occurred nearly 250 kilometres north of the city. The pilot of the ill-fated plane also managed to avoid a head-on collision with a bus christened Simba Mtoto, which was travelling from Tanga to Dodoma. Contacted by telephone in Dar es Salaam, the TPDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Abdurahman Shimbo, declined to name the victims until their next of kin are informed. “The bodies of the two army officers are being ferried to Lugalo Military Hospital here in Dar es Salaam. We will release their names after we have informed their next of kin later today,” he said “The army is very sad about what has happened this morning (yesterday morning),” said Lt-Gen Shimbo when reached by phone. He said the two-seater plane, a jet trainer FT5, crash-landed at Manga village on the highway after it developed technical problems, while on a training mission. “This is the first time a military trainer jet has been involved in an accident while on pilot training within the army’s training airspace in the country. It is very unfortunate,” said Lt-Gen Shimbo. He said the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), General Davis Mwamunyange, had sent condolence messages to the bereaved families. He had also apologised to motorists and their passengers for any inconvenience caused by the accident along the Dar es Salaam-Arusha highway. The TPDF, Lt-Gen Shimbo said, had formed a task force composed of army aviation experts to investigate the cause of the accident. He declined to name the members of the team, only saying it had immediately started work. Shortly after the plane crashed, a team of army officers were dispatched to the area and cordoned it off, bringing transport on the highway to a standstill for more than 30 minutes, the witnesses said. As a result of the 30-minute road closure, long queues of motor vehicles formed on both sides of the usually busy highway. “Traffic was held up until the army men collected the bodies of their colleagues, dismantled the plane and towed the wreckage to an army base,” they said.According to the witnesses, the plane was flying normally and suddenly started descending, and crash-landed on the highway. “We thank God that traffic was light when the plane crashed, otherwise it could have been a bigger tragedy,” said an eyewitness, who gave her name only as Halima. The Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) public relations officer, Mr Abel Ngapemba, said they had been informed by the military that the plane had been on a training mission. “TCAA doesn’t deal with military planes but since there is an accident, we are working closely with the military,” he said, adding that the TCAA personnel in Tanga had visited the accident scene. This is the second fatal plane crash involving the military in the recent past. Six people, including four TPDF soldiers, were killed in June 2008, when their helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from Arusha airport. The accident occurred around midday in Mateves village, some 17 kilometres from Arusha Town. The badly smashed bodies of the victims were flung over a large area, from where a search team collected them for burial. The four military casualties were Colonel Wakete, the pilot, Major Sinda, his co-pilot, Lieutenant Kirunga (technician), and private Maande, who was also an aircraft technician with the TPDF. The civilians are Mrs Irene Nkamba Jitenga, the wife of Brigadier General Jitenga, who is in charge of army units in the northern zone regions, and Ms Tamary Mzirai, a 14-year-old secondary school student. This was the third accident involving an army helicopters in Arusha region in 2008. Another TPDF plane crashed in Dodoma in February 2007, but all its 13 passengers cheated death. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
| Last Updated on Thursday, 01 July 2010 09:22 |
