Aircraft disaster during tourist flight to Kenya’s Maasai Mara results in 11 fatalities 

In Kenya, 11 people including mostly foreign tourists died in a plane crash in the Kenya coastal area Kwale on the early part of Tuesday as they were heading to the Maasai mara national reserve in heavy rainfall.

In a statement, the airline, Mombasa Air Safari, noted that eight Hungarian passengers and two German passengers were on board with the Kenyan pilot also being killed. Authorities said the plane crashed in a hilly and forested region around 40 kilometres (25 miles) away in the Diani airstrip.

The airline did not establish when the aircraft left Diani since the pilot had not spoken to the airport control tower when taking off and that the airport control tower had made 30 attempts to contact the pilot before the plane was found.

The cause of the crash was under investigation by the investigating agencies, Kwale County Commissioner, Stephen Orinde, told The Associated Press. Officials first reported that the accident occurred at 5:30 am but the transport minister in a statement indicated that it was at 8:35 am. The plane exploded in fire and what was left of it was burnt, the officials said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote on a social network that his country had been negotiating with the Kenyan government.

“What a tragedy!” Orbàn wrote. “Our sincere condolences to families of the Hungarians who died in the plane crash in Kenya.”

On social media, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated that the Hungarian victims were two families and an acquaintance with two of the dead children.

He told him that the Hungarian consul at Kenya was coming to the scene. Kenya Civil Aviation Authority previously reported that there were 12 individuals on the Cessna-type Caravan aircraft. It never explained why it resorted to changing the figure to 11.

In 2012, a plane of the Mombassa Air Safari was involved in an accident at the Maasai Mara, and the accident led to the murder of four individuals.

The last safety oversight audit of Kenya according to the International Civil Aviation Organization website was made in 2018; according to it, in 2018, Kenya had a lower performance rating in the category of accident investigation in comparison with the rest of the world.

The government of Kenya said that there were investigators who were sent to under what has transpired and Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban offered condolences.

Hungary Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, had stated that the eight Hungarians who were killed represented two families, an acquaintance of theirs, and two minors. Two Germans were also killed.

“Once we receive the official information on the identities of the victims, the next of kin will be notified,” Szijjarto said in a live broadcast on YouTube.