On 9 March 2009, an Aerolift Ilyushin Il-76T, operating a cargo flight for the African Union Mission to Somalia from Entebbe International Airport, Uganda, to Aden Adde International Airport, Somalia, crashed into Lake Victoria shortly after take off, killing all 11 people on board. The investigation into the accident could not identify with certainty the cause of the crash, but it was hypothesized and deemed highly likely that the aircraft suffered from engine problems shortly after take off, and that they were mismanaged by the crew due to various factors.
Background Aircraft The aircraft involved in the accident was an Ilyushin Il-76T registered in Sao Tome and Principe as S9-SAB. The aircraft was manufactured in 1977.
Passengers and crew The aircraft was carrying a total of 11 people, seven passengers, two Ugandan, three Burundian, one South African and one Indian nationals, members of the African Union Mission to Somalia, and four crew members, two Russian nationals, who were the captain and first officer, and two Ukrainian nationals, the navigator and the flight engineer. Among the three burundian soldiers on board there were a brigadier, a colonel and a general.
Accident The aircraft took off at 5:06 local time from Entebbe International Airport, Uganda, for a charter cargo flight to Aden Adde International Airport, Somalia, to carry 16 tonnes of supplies, tents and water purification equipment to Ugandan soldiers stationed in Somalia. Shortly after take off, as the aircraft was climbing, ground witnesses reported fire coming from two of its four engines. The plane then lost altitude and disappeared from radar at 5:14. The Il-76 had crashed into one of the deepest regions of Lake Victoria, about 10 kilometers south off coast near the airport. All 11 people on board were killed. The wave generated by the impact capsized a boat with two fishermen on board; they were injured but survived.
Recovery operation After the crash a multi-day recovery operation was launched. On 11 March the first two bodies were recovered, but, due to the depth of the lake and difficulties encountered by local rescue teams, in the following days Ugandan authorities asked the help of rescuers from the United States. In the following days sonar technicians from the US Navy arrived in Uganda from Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy. The american technicians used unmanned underwater vehicles to map the debris field present in the deepest parts of the lake. On 25 March the joint recovery mission managed to raise the tail section of the plane from the bottom of Lake Victoria. The search for the aircraft's flight recorders continued, but never found them.
Investigation Ugandan authorities launched an investigation into the crash, and on 13 January 2010 finished its final report on it. The report stated that the investigators did not have sufficient evidence, since a large part of the wreckage and both flight recorders weren't recovered, to establish a certain cause for the crash, but that a highly plausible hypothesis could be made. The investigators hypothesised that the aircraft had a loss of engine power during take off, as it was confirmed by ground witnesses and supported by previous occurrences involving the aircrat, like an incident occurred in December 2008 in which the Il-76 lost engine power also taking off from Entebbe International Airport. After that previous incident the airplane remained grounded in Uganda for two weeks, but local aviation authorities didn't perform any repairs due to the lack of technicians trained for Soviet-made aircraft. The report also noted that the pilots had very little rest the night before the flight, that night they also drunk a lot, and were probably still under the effect of alcohol during the flight. This mix of tiredness, drunkness and overwork, since there wasn't any radio operator on board, which is needed in the Il-76 cockpit, made the crew mishandle the engine problem, leading to the crash. The aircraft was also being used beyond its maximum amount of flight cycles without any modification, substitution or repair.
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