Hiiraan Online

March 10. 2009

The Ilyushin Il-76 -- bound for Mogadishu with supplies for the African Union force in Somalia -- plunged into Lake Victoria on Monday shortly after taking off from Entebbe airport, which is located next to the lake.

"We didn't have any findings by the time we stopped last night," Ignia Igunduura, spokesman for Uganda's Civil Aviation Authority, told AFP.

"The divers have gone out ... and we hope by the end of the day today we will find something."

Killed were three Burundian military officers assigned to the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia, plus two Ugandans, an Indian, a South African and a crew of four -- two Russians and two Ukrainians.

About 15 divers were conducting the search at the crash site, some 10 kilometres (six miles) south of the airport, but had yet to retrieve any remains of the victims, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.

More debris had washed ashore Tuesday but the aircraft's main body was still submerged.

Pieces of debris from the fuselage of a plane that crashed into Lake Victoria are laid on the shore

It is not yet clear what caused the accident, but officials said Monday that a fire had broken out on board before the aircraft crashed. The Civil Aviation Authority said an investigation was under way.

As it came crashing down, the plane also struck fishing boats, injuring four fishermen.

Karim Mubaji, a 30-year-old fisherman, said he survived the accident and clung onto a piece of wood from their destroyed boat before being rescued.

"I was afraid. I was thinking about two things; one was the water and one was the fire and I was thinking which one was going to kill me.

"I was floating for about 30 minutes when firemen came to rescue me. What I saw was fire and broken pieces, I didn't see any bodies," he told AFP.

Uganda and Rwanda are the only African countries to have contributed troops to the AU's Somali peace force, both having a total of 3,400 soldiers, but which is less that half the planned total strength of 8,000.

Monday's plane crash was the latest setback to the mission. On February 22, 11 Burundian troops were killed and 15 wounded in a suspected suicide attack on their base in southern Mogadishu.

The AU deployed forces in the Somali capital in March 2007 to help pacify the war-wracked country, but have come under repeated attacks by hardline Islamist insurgent groups.

The effectiveness of the AU mission has been hampered by under-funding and lack of equipment as Somalia's civil war, dating back to 1991, drags on.

Somalia has had no central government since the ouster that year of president Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a deadly clan rivalry and fighting which has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.

SOURCE: AFP, March 10. 2009