Aircraft Accident at Bukoba Airport: Unstabilized Approach in Poor Weather (5H-PWF)

Accident Overview and Impact Location During the final approach to runway 31 at Bukoba Airport, the aircraft struck the water surface of Lake Victoria approximately 500 meters short of the runway threshold. The impact caused significant damage to the fuselage, and water entered the cabin and flight deck. No fire occurred, but the aircraft was damaged beyond economic repair and sank to a depth of about 3 to 4 meters. ## Weather and Approach Conditions The crew encountered heavy rain, thunderstorms with lightning, significant crosswind, and turbulence during the approach. During the final approach, several nose-down inputs on the control column increased the aircraft's descent rate. The EGPWS SINK RATE alert triggered 15 seconds before the accident, followed by the EGPWS PULL-UP warning. Around 2 seconds before impact, the flight crew made a nose-up input on the control column. ## Casualties and Damage Of the 43 persons on board, 17 passengers and 2 pilots died. Twenty-two passengers and 2 cabin crew members survived without serious injuries. ## Contributing Factors The investigation identified several factors. The pilot-in-command decided to proceed with the final approach without the required weather minima in order to reach the runway instead of diverting to Mwanza. Other factors included gusting crosswind, heavy rain and turbulence, the absence of air traffic services at Bukoba Airport, a high rate of descent at low altitude, no immediate response to the EGPWS warnings, and high crew workload during the critical phase of final approach.