Reuters are reporting that a Cessna Caravan of Coastal Aviation en route from Arusha to a destination in Serengeti National Park crashed in the Ngorongoro Crater at about 1100L this morning. The pilot and all 10 passengers were killed in the accident:
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - At least 11 people were killed in northern Tanzania on Wednesday when a light aircraft flying to the Serengeti National Park, a popular tourist destination, crashed, the flight operator said.
The Cessna Caravan light airplane, carrying a pilot and 10 passengers, was flying tourists from the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha when it went down in the Ngorongoro crater at about 0800 GMT, Coastal Aviation said in a statement.
The Tanzanian air charter company said the identities of the dead would be withheld until their families are notified.
"This is devastating," the company said. The cause of the accident was unknown, police said.
The nationalities of the tourists on board the aircraft could not be immediately established.
This comes just 3 weeks after Coastal had an accident when landing a Caravan at Lobo airstrip in Serengeti. Luckily in that one there were no serious injuries, though I heard that the aircraft was written off.
It’s sad that 2017 is turning out to be a bad year for Coastal Aviation, ‘The Flying Safari Company’ which has one of the largest light aircraft fleets in East Africa operating to the national parks and offshore islands