Eleven people were killed when a small tourist plane crashed shortly after take-off from Kenya’s south coast, officials said. The aircraft, operated by Mombasa Air Safari, was flying from the beach resort of Diani to Kichwa Tembo airstrip in the Maasai Mara when it went down at about 05:30 local time (02:30 GMT), the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said.
The operator said the dead included eight Hungarian nationals, two Germans and the Kenyan pilot. “Our primary focus right now is on providing all possible support to the families affected,” the company said in a statement.
Kwale County Commissioner Stephen Orinde told the BBC the plane crashed roughly 10 km (six miles) from Kwale town after departing Diani. Local media images showed wreckage on fire with debris scattered around the site.
Investigators have begun probing the cause. Orinde said poor weather may have been a factor. “It is raining and very misty, but we cannot pre-empt the findings,” he said.
In August, a light aircraft owned by medical charity Amref crashed near Nairobi, killing six people and injuring two others.