DAR ES SALAAM, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian aviation authorities said on Tuesday they are dispatching a team of aviation experts to the Comoros to investigate the cause of a plane crash on Saturday that left 14 passengers and crew missing.
Hamza Johari, the director general of the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA), said the aviation experts will join their counterparts in the Comoros to investigate the cause of the plane accident that crashed off the Indian Ocean island nation.
The aircraft, a Cessna Caravan, crashed into the Indian Ocean sea as it was about to land, with Comorian authorities saying the fate of the 14 people on board, 12 Comorian passengers and two Tanzanian pilots, could not be immediately established.
Mohammed Mazrui, whose firm Fly Zanzibar Limited owns the fateful aircraft, said on Monday the aircraft was leased to a Comorian carrier and was flying from the capital of Moroni to the city of Fomboni when the accident occurred.
The plane disappeared from radar about 2.5 km from its destination, with the cause of the accident still unknown, said Mazrui, according to media reports.
The Comorian transport ministry said debris believed to be of the aircraft had been found, adding that an operation was being conducted to recover the debris from the ocean.
Senior police officer Abdel-Kader Mohamed told the media in Moroni that three speedboats had been sent to the crash site to search for survivors and collect debris and items belonging to passengers. ■