Russian plane's tail raised from lake; Body of Indian yet to recover

A combined team of Ugandan and United States military divers on Wednesday raised the tail of the sunken Ilyushin II 76 Soviet-era cargo plane which plunged into Lake Victoria on March 9, killing all eleven people on board.
A combined team of Ugandan and United States military divers on Wednesday managed to raise the tail-section of the sunken Ilyushin II 76 Soviet-era cargo plane.
Four of the crash victims are still missing and recovery divers are hard at work, trying to raise the wreckage and searching for human remains in the deep, dark water of Lake Victoria.
Two Russians (captain and co-pilot), two Ukrainians, three senior Burundian army officers, two Ugandans, a South African and an Indian man all died in the March 9 accident, authorities have confirmed. However while the remains of seven of these eleven victims -- namely the Ugandans, Burundians and Ukrainians -- have already been identified and buried, the fate of four others is still unknown.
One person among the missing has been publicly identified by his family as an employee of US Dyncorp International, who has still "has not been identified among the dead," a Dyncorp spokesman told Digital Journal yesterday. Also stil missing are the two Russian aviators and the unnamed South African citizen.
The huge aircraft was carrying equipment for the African Peace Mission in Somalia, and crashed into the deep fresh-water lake - the largest in Africa -- within moments of takeoff from Entebbe airport. see our previous report here and also here.
“The wreckage is believed to have sank 24-26 metres deep and buried beneath 10 meters of mud,” said Lt. Col. Gregory Joachim, defence attache at the US Embassy there. The Ugandan government had asked the US for specialised assistance in the recovery mission.
The Americans were tasked with retrieving the remains of the remaining victims, recover the black box and advising the investigation team based at the Civil Aviation Authority offices in Entebbe.
The plane, registration S9-SAB, is owned by the Russian-based Aerolift international cargo company and was chartered by US Dyncorp.
27/03/09 Adriana Stuijt/Digital Journal

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Categories: Foreign Mar 2009, Safety Mar 2009