NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A plane crash killed 11 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Kenya’s coastal region of Kwale early Tuesday while en route to the Maasai Mara National Reserve.
The airline, Mombasa Air Safari, said in a statement that eight Hungarian and two German passengers were onboard, and that the Kenyan pilot was also killed. The plane crashed in a hilly and forested area about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Diani airstrip, authorities said.
The airline did not confirm what time the aircraft departed Diani, saying the pilot failed to communicate upon departure and that the airport control tower tried to reach him for 30 minutes before the plane was located.
Investigating agencies were looking into the cause of the crash, Kwale County Commissioner Stephen Orinde told The Associated Press. The authorities initially said the crash happened at 5:30 a.m. local time but the transport minister in a statement gave the time as 8:35 a.m.
The airline was unable to confirm the exact time the plane wreckage was located.
There was heavy rain in coastal Kenya in the morning.
The aircraft burst into flames, leaving charred wreckage at the scene, officials said.
Witnesses told the AP that they heard a loud bang, and upon arriving at the scene, they found unrecognizable human remains.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on social media Tuesday that Hungary’s foreign ministry had been in contact with authorities in Kenya concerning the Hungarian victims of the plane crash.
“What a tragedy!” Orbán wrote on Facebook. “Our sincere condolences to families of the Hungarians who died in the plane crash in Kenya.”
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority had earlier said that 12 people were onboard the Cessna Caravan-type aircraft. It did not give a reason for revising the number onboard to 11.
The Mombasa Air Safari airline operates 13-passenger capacity Cessnas to many tourist destinations.
The Maasai Mara National Reserve, located west of the coastline, is a two-hour direct flight from Diani, a popular coastal town known for its sandy beaches. The reserve attracts a large number of tourists as it features the annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania.
The Kenyan coastline’s white sand beaches along the Indian Ocean attract tourists from all over the world.
According to the most recent safety oversight audit for Kenya posted on the International Civil Aviation Organization site, from 2018, Kenya's performance in the area of accident investigation fell below average.
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AP journalist Justin Spike, contributed from Budapest, Hungary.