Tanzanian military plane crash kills 2 solders

Two soldiers with the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF) died after a military plane crashed in the Indian Ocean on Thursday morning.

TPDF confirmed the incident saying the plane which was used for training crashed at around 9:30 a.m. local time and had two pilots who were Lieutenant Colonel Talkisiyo Bruno Ndongoro and Captain Gaudence Peter Hamis.

According to a statement issued by TPDF's communication unit, the two pilots lost the direction when they were coming from Silver Sand area of Bundya Island on the north-eastern coast of Dar es Salaam city.

TPDF said the source of the accident is engine fault and when the pilots discovered the problem it was too late to get out of the plane.

"Worse enough, the plane submerged into the ocean and the TPDF soldiers were on site to search for the bodies of dead pilots using military boats," the force said in statement, without divulging detailed information on the type of the plane that involved in the accident.

Three years ago, a TPDF captain was killed and another injured, when bailing out of a training aircraft in Dar es Salaam.

The force's spokesperson Kapambala Mgawe was quoted as saying the accident occurred when the pilots were preparing for take-off for a training stint.

He elaborated that when the aircraft failed to take off the two pilots opted to jump out using parachutes.

He said one of the parachutes successfully opened, but the other failed, resulting into the pilot falling on a tarmac road near a warehouse. Endit