In the Pallisa district, a Soroti flying school plane crashes.
In the Pallisa district, an aircraft belonging to the East African Aviation School crashed.
In the Pallisa district, an aircraft belonging to the East African Aviation School crashed.
Mercy Mulayi, a 24-year-old cadet pilot, was flying the plane when it crashed in Nyakwa swamp in Ochulia village, Obutete sub-county, Pallisa district on Wednesday morning.
Mulayi was rescued and taken to Pallisa General Hospital for treatment by a team of police led by Pallisa District Police Commander Umar Mugerwa and local residents.
The Bukedi North Police Spokesperson, Alaso Immaculate Emily, says that police are working with the Flying School, the Ministry of Works, and the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority to remove the wreckage from the swamp.
A fisherman and eyewitness, Moses Okurut, claims to have seen the plane oscillate in the air before it crashed.
Yobu Emorut, who was grazing his cattle nearby, and Francis Amorikin, a local, claim that shortly after the plane crashed, they ran towards it to save the pilot from the waters.
Before coming down, the aircraft rotated in the sky, billowing dark smoke, according to another eyewitness only identified as Njaye.
Ramazan Okwaja, an Obutet resident, claims that they saw the plane drop fuel before it crashed.
In 2015, a Soroti aircraft from the East African Civil Aviation Academy crashed within the school grounds. The two passengers who were on board were unharmed.
A Cessna 172 aircraft with the registration number 5X-VIC crashed on the fence of the Soroti flying school near Kichijanji in Soroti town in August 2014, but the occupants were unharmed.
Another Soroti flying school aircraft crashed just a short distance from the school in February 2013, overturning and landing upside down, with the entire engine section ripped from the main hull.
All of the occupants, however, escaped with minor injuries. A UPDF helicopter crashed in Entebbe earlier this year, killing two cadet pilots.
Major Naomi Kalunji and Cadet Pilot Benon Wakola were killed when a UPDF jet ranger AF302 crashed in Butambala district last year.
