CNN —Several passengers on board a commercial flight operated by Precision Air which crashed into Lake Victoria in Tanzania on Sunday have been rescued, the airline and local officials said.
Boats with emergency response personnel were deployed to the crash site at Africa’s largest lake near Bukoba airport.
The flight had taken off from Tanzania’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam but was “involved in an accident as it was approaching Bukoba airport and crash landed in Lake Victoria,” the carrier said.
Video circulating on social media taken by onlookers on the shores of Lake Victoria showed the aircraft submerged in the water with emergency responders coordinating rescue efforts from nearby boats.
“I have received with sadness the information of the crash of the Precision Air flight at Lake Victoria, in the Kagera region,” President Samoa Suluhu wrote on Twitter Sunday.