Plane crashes while flying tourists to Kenya's Maasai Mara, killing 11 people

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A plane crash killed 11 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Kenya’s coastal region of Kwale early Tuesday while they were en route to the Maasai Mara National Reserve in heavy rain.

The airline, Mombasa Air Safari, said in a statement that eight Hungarian and two German passengers were on board, and the Kenyan pilot was also killed. The plane crashed in a hilly, forested area about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Diani airstrip, authorities said.

The airline did not confirm what time the aircraft departed Diani, saying the pilot failed to communicate upon departure and that the airport control tower tried to reach him for 30 minutes before the plane was located.

Investigating agencies were looking into the cause of the crash, Kwale County Commissioner Stephen Orinde told The Associated Press. Authorities initially said the crash happened at 5:30 a.m. but the transport minister in a statement gave the time as 8:35 a.m.

The aircraft burst into flames, leaving charred wreckage, officials said.

Witnesses told the AP they heard a loud bang and found unrecognizable human remains at the scene.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on social media that the foreign ministry had been in contact with Kenyan authorities.

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

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on social media that the Hungarian victims were two families and an acquaintance, with two children among the dead. He said the Hungarian consul in Kenya was on the way to the scene.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority earlier said 12 people were on the Cessna Caravan-type aircraft. It did not give a reason for revising the number to 11.

The Mombasa Air Safari airline operates 13-passenger Cessnas to many tourist destinations.

The Maasai Mara National Reserve, in western Kenya, is a two-hour direct flight from Diani, a popular town on the Indian Ocean. One of Kenya's most visited areas, the reserve features an annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania.

A Mombasa Air Safari plane crashed in the Maasai Mara in 2012, with four people killed.

According to the most recent safety oversight audit for Kenya posted on the International Civil Aviation Organization site, from 2018, Kenya's performance in the area of accident investigation fell below the global average.

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AP journalist Justin Spike contributed from Budapest, Hungary.