Mourners Tanzanians on Monday paid tribute to 19 people killed when a passenger plane crashed into Lake Victoria in the country’s deadliest plane crash in decades.

The Precision Air flight from the financial metropolis of Dar es Salaam crashed on Sunday morning while attempting to land in the northwestern city of Bukoba.

Bad weather was blamed for the accident.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa was among hundreds of people who gathered at Bukoba’s Kaitaba Stadium, with Muslim and Christian clerics leading prayers for the dead while onlookers wiped away tears.

The ceremony to deliver the bodies of the victims to their families is expected to last for hours, with local broadcasters broadcasting live from the stadium.

Twenty-four survivors were evacuated from the 43 people on board flight PW 494 when investigators from Precision Air and the Tanzania Airports Authority arrived in the lake town on Sunday.

Precision Air, a publicly traded company and Tanzania’s largest private airline, said the plane was an ATR 42-500 manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian company ATR and was carrying 39 passengers – including an infant – and four crew members, according to the board .

AFP journalists saw the plane largely submerged on Sunday as rescuers, including fishermen, waded through water to get people to safety.

Rescuers tried to use ropes to lift the plane out of the water, aided by cranes, as local residents also tried to help.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday offered her condolences to the families of the victims and saluted the rescue workers and volunteers for their quick action to save lives.

“I congratulate those who took part in the rescue, including the people of Bukoba,” she said on Twitter.

“I pray that those who have died will rest in peace and that the injured will recover quickly.”

Precision Air, part-owned by Kenya Airways, was established in 1993 and operates domestic, regional and private charter flights to popular tourist destinations such as Serengeti National Park and the Zanzibar Archipelago.

The accident came five years after 11 people died in a Coastal Aviation plane crash in northern Tanzania.

In 1999, a dozen people, including 10 US tourists, died in a plane crash in northern Tanzania while flying between Serengeti National Park and Kilimanjaro Airport.