Mwanza Region

After landing at Mwanza Airport, the crew encountered control problems. The aircraft deviated to the left then veered off runway. While contacting soft ground, the nose gear collapsed and the aircraft came to rest near a taxiway. All 80 occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The crew consisting of one instructor and one pilot under supervision departed Mwanza for a local training flight with approaches and touch-and-go manoeuvres. Shortly after takeoff from runway 12, while climbing to an altitude of 800 feet, the twin engine aircraft rolled to the right then entered a right turn and an uncontrolled descent before crashing on the top of a small hill located 890 metres from the runway 30 threshold. The aircraft was totally destroyed and both pilots were killed, a British instructor and an Australian citizen pilot under training.

On 23 March 2005 at 0533 hours an Ilyushin IL-76 cargo jet with the Republic of Moldova registration letters ER-IBR landed at Mwanza on a flight from Benghazi, Libya. It was carrying a crew of 8 including 2 ground engineers. All the 8 crew members were later involved in the accident. While at Mwanza, some 50,000 kg of fish was uplifted. At 1930 hours the commander filed a flight plan for Khartoum. The endurance was 0450 hours. The cargo manifest showed that ER-IBR was operating Air Trans Inc. Flight RIN 982 from Mwanza to Osijek, Croatia, with refueling stops at Khartoum and Benghazi. At 2000 hours the aircraft was given information relevant for take off as well as the departure clearance. ER-IBR subsequently advised that he was starting the take-off roll. This was the last communication received from the aircraft. The aircraft was observed to execute a normal take-off roll from runway 30. This runway ends 120m short of Lake Victoria. After observing that the aircraft was airborne, the controller who was handling the flight reported that he turned to complete the flight progress strip. Having done so, he lost visual contact with the aircraft that was supposed to be in a climb profile over the lake. Efforts to raise the aircraft on the radio failed. In about two minutes from the time that the aircraft was airborne, he saw a fire tender speeding along runway 30. It was then that he realized that the flight may have crashed. The Mwanza Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Services were not equipped for operations in the lake. They were therefore unable to reach the aircraft, which was more than 1 km away from the shore. It was the fishermen at the lake shore near Mwanza airport who saw the aircraft going down in the lake. They proceeded to the crash site in fishing boats and brought back some documents (flight manuals and wiring diagrams) which they found floating near the wreckage.

The aircraft was departed Khartoum for a flight to Mwanza where it was supposed to pick up a cargo of 38 tonnes of fish fillet from Vick Fish Processors for delivery in Europe. When it went dark en route to Mwanza, the radio altimeter integral light was found to be unserviceable. The crew were not able to fix the problem and the continued using the FMS. The crew contacted Mwanza tower at 16:58 and were being advised that there was no power at the airport and that efforts were being made to use a standby generator. Further information passed on the crew reportedly included VOR, DME and NDB all unserviceable, weather: wind calm, 8 km visibility, temperature 25deg C and QNH 1015. After holding for 10 minutes, the airport generator came on and the runway lights went on. The first officer, who was pilot flying, started a visual runway 12 approach. When well established on finals with full landing configuration, the captain told the f/o that he was too low, and a few seconds later he told the f/o he was too high. Both the captain and the flight engineer then told the f/o to go around. The f/o overshot and climbed to 5500 feet on the downwind leg. Turning on the left base the captain remarked that the turn was too tight: ".. I will do a 360-degree turn to the right and position you finals". The captain thus took over control and started a right turn at 4400 feet. Just before completing the turn, the f/o said: "do not go down anymore, the altimeter is reading 4100 feet". Almost aligned with the runway, the f/o took over control again. At that same moment the aircraft bounced 2 or 3 times yawing to the left and came down to a halt in the middle of the lake.

The aircraft was f1ying from Entebbe (Uganda) to Mwanza (Tanzania) for the purpose of uplifting some cargo of fish fillet which was bound for Ostend, Belgium. It was carrying a crew of four including two pilot s and two engineers. The Commander said that the flight from Entebbe to Mwanza was normal except for the n°1 generator warning light which came on 10 minutes after takeoff from Entebbe. The relevant generator was subsequently switched off and the flight was continued. The aircraft flew IFR, cruising at FL250. Shortly before landing at Mwanza the commander obtained the weather information from the Mwanza Tower. The wind was calm. The controller who was handling the flight said that whilst approaching runway 12 of Mwanza airport the aircraft was swaying from side to side. When EL-WVD touched down on the runway a loud bang was heard and one engine was observed to separate and roll down the runway whilst it was on fire. Examination of the impact and tire marks showed that the right wing tip impacted the runway first followed by the n°4 engine. The right main landing gear subsequently contacted the grass surface off the left edge of the runway followed by the left main landing gear. The aircraft continued to roll in a direction almost parallel to the runway centreline for 250 metres before it crossed the runway at an angle. It was also evident from the tyre marks that as it reached the runway the aircraft made a 180° turn to point in the opposite direction whilst sliding sideways at an angle with the centreline under its own momentum. As it did so, the main landing gear collapsed and three wing pylons sheared causing the engines to separate. EL-WVD finally settled at the edge of the runway pointing 310° with the right wing projecting 2.5 metres inside the runway. There was fuel leakage but no fire. The four crew members disembarked with minor injuries.

Suffered an accident near Mwanza.

Shortly after takeoff from Mwanza Airport, while in initial climb, the twin engine airplane entered a nose down attitude then plunged into Lake Victoria about 8 km off the airport. The aircraft sank by a depth of 100 metres and was not recovered. All 10 occupants have been killed. The aircraft was completing a charter flight from Mwanza to Bukoba on behalf of Caspair and has been delivery last February.

Crashed in unknown circumstances in Mwanza. There were no casualties but the aircraft was destroyed by a post crash fire.