Africa-Press – Tanzania. ZANZIBAR President, Dr Hussein Mwinyi has sent comforting messages to the grieving families of passengers and pilots of a Cessna aircraft that crashed on Saturday off the coast of Mohéli island in Comoro located deep in the Indian Ocean.
The ill-fated aircraft that was conducting a passenger service from Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport (HAH) in Moroni to Mohéli’s Bandar Es Eslam (NWA) airport had twelve passengers on board, all Comoro citizens and two Tanzanian pilots.
The pilots – Ashraf Abdalla and Edy Mazrui are from Zanzibar where Abdalla is a son of Dr Abdalla Mabodi, the current Deputy National Secretary General of ruling CCM, while Edy is a grandson of Mr Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, the Isles Minister responsible for Health.
“It is time of grief, let us pray for the missing people,” Dr Mwinyi said in a statement as some of the families of the two pilots travelled to Comoros to be closer to the search team.
The search team started the exercise on Saturday shortly after the disappearance of the plane. Airline AB Aviation said in a statement that its small Cessna plane disappeared from the radar about 2.5 Kilometres (1.6 miles) from its destination during its flight between the capital Moroni and the town of Fomboni on the island of Moheli.
“We are waiting for the search results from Comoros,” said Minister Mazrui.
The Zanzibar State Minister (Policy, Coordination, and House of Representatives) Dr Khalid Salum Mohamed said he communicated with Tanzania Ambassador to the Comoros about development of the search team involving divers’ experts from Comoros, France, and Madagascar and asked members of the families to remain patient and calm as the search continues.
Some leaders and other ordinary people yesterday visited the grieving families of Dr Mabodi and Mazrui expressing shock about the tragedy.
Tanzania’s current ambassador to Comoros Pereira Ame Silima confirmed the crash and said efforts to locate the plane’s passengers and pilots were ongoing, “So far, only some of the plane wreckage have been found. Rescue teams continue with the search,” he said.
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