Incident Overview
A cargo aircraft operating a flight from London-Gatwick to Entebbe overran the runway upon landing and came to rest in Lake Victoria. The aircraft was carrying seven crew members and a payload of 50 tons of various goods. The landing occurred at night on runway 17.
Runway and Landing Details
Runway 17/35 at Entebbe is 12,000 feet long. The aircraft was unable to stop within the remaining distance after touchdown, resulting in an overrun. The aircraft then plunged into the lake, where it broke into two sections. All seven crew members were rescued approximately 10 minutes after the incident.
Investigative Findings
According to the official investigation, during the final approach the aircraft was well above the glide path and touched down too far along the wet runway—approximately 4,000 to 5,000 feet past the runway threshold. It was reported that the nose gear contacted the runway 13 seconds after both main landing gears had touched down. The flight crew did not initiate a go-around procedure.
Official Probable Cause
The probable cause, as stated by the investigation, is that the aircraft was well above the glide on final approach, landed too far down a wet runway, with the nose gear landing 13 seconds after the main gears, and the crew failed to initiate a go-around.