Precision Air pilots failed to heed warnings before crash, says report

Dar es Salaam. Pilots of the ill-fated Precision Air plane which crashed into Lake Victoria on November 6, 2022 failed to heed warnings from an automatic "pull up" alarm system, a new report released by government on Thursday has established.

The transport ministry said that an enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) issued three alerts "about the excessively high descent rate".

"The warning was not followed by corrective action of the flight crew," the ministry's aircraft accident and incident investigation branch said.

"Instead, the flight crew pushed the control column into a nose down position."

The EGPWS alerts the cockpit if a plane is in danger of flying into the ground or hitting something.

Nineteen people were killed when the plane plunged into Lake Victoria with police blaming bad weather for the country’s worst aviation accident in decades.

The report said the pilots were flying in bad weather and in conditions marked by poor visibility, which "may have contributed to the failure to react to terrain warnings during the final approach."

"This type of weather is common around the Bukoba airport and is well known to pilots," it said.

The aircraft was on VFR final approach to runway 31 of Bukoba Airport in marginal weather conditions when the EGPWS warned about the excessively high descent rate three times.

Prior to the crash, the plane circled for about 20 minutes in heavy rain, prompting the flight crew to make right and left turns in order to navigate through narrow weather windows.

“Indeed at one point, the EGPWS warnings (against terrain) came on but were not heeded.”

However, it appears that the Pilot in Command (PIC) was committed to landing at Bukoba Airport.

“Marginal visibility caused high workload among the crew and may have contributed to the failure to react to terrain warnings during the final approach.”

An earlier report published by the ministry soon after the accident said the rescue effort was too slow, and that more passengers would likely have survived had emergency workers been better prepared and equipped to carry out their duties.

Fishermen, who were the first to arrive on the scene, used canoes to pluck people to safety after a crew member unlocked a rear door, allowing survivors to get out.

Most of the victims were in the submerged front of the plane, while the two pilots were unable to escape the cockpit.

A third and final report on the accident is due by November 2023, at the conclusion of a deeper investigation being conducted jointly by aviation experts representing the Tanzanian government, privately-owned Precision Air, and the aircraft's manufacturers in France.