Sunday morning 6th of November, the morning weather at Ngong hills was partly sunny with gloomy clouds hovering above.
Fiona Ndila Mutuku was leaving her Ngong house for her rural residence in Mtito Andei, some 253 kilometers away. She kissed her 6-year-old son, Leon goodbye and was set on her way to the SGR railway station in Syokimau to catch an 8 am train.
On the way to the railway station, Fiona spoke to her husband Peter Omondi Odhiambo, the first officer in the Precision Air plane that was still on the ground preparing for its last flight. This was at around 5:53 am.
That morning they had a couple’s ordinary chat, Peter asking about their son and talking about domestic stuff.
The night before they had also talked and so Fiona knew that Peter was set for a flight that morning from Tanzania to Bukoba, Uganda, while Peter also knew that Fiona was traveling to Mtitio Andei.
“Safe Skies!”, was Fiona’s language for a safe journey, as she wished her hubby a safe flight. Peter then replied to her, “Thanks, travel safely too.”
Fast track to 10:45 am when Fiona arrived at the Mtito Andei terminus. She checked her phone, scrolling through social media only to see that a certain Precision Air plane had crashed into Lake Victoria in its attempt to land in stormy weather, 100 meters shy of the runway it was expected to touchdown at.
The plane crashed at 8:53 am. From what she read, there were no casualties. Still, this was not enough solace for her.
Panic, worry lines and grief written all over her face, Fiona checked again to confirm the plane’s trajectory. Bukoba! Read the report. Her heart sank.
She began to make calls to close family. She first called Peter’s brother, Alex Odhiambo. He was a naysayer and didn’t know enough about his brother’s fate yet. She then called his sister, Gertrude Achieng’ and then his friends, some of whom were pilots. Nobody had any information to give her on the fate of the pilots.
Fiona then checked her husband’s ‘last seen’ on WhatsApp. It showed the last time they spoke in the wee hours of the morning.
She decided to comfort herself that maybe he didn’t have his phone and the rescue efforts were still underway, as there were still no reported deaths.
At 3 pm, a Human Resource officer from Precision Air called to inform her that the plane was being towed from the Lake and could not give her any lead information about her husband’s whereabouts.
Even after Peter’s death news was broken to the family some 8 hours later, Fiona was somewhat braced for the bad news as she had already begun to see ‘some clues’ that her hubby of 9 years was no more.
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One of Peter’s friends, a pilot too, had put his picture as the WhatsApp display picture, the other clue was from something he confessed to her a long time ago.
“Looking back, I think I knew the moment I heard his plane had gone down in the lake. I saw videos of the partially submerged plane. Peter didn’t know how to swim…” she sobs in an interview at her Ngong’ residence.
The plane submerged to an extent that only the tailfin was visible. The plane’s captain and first officer, Captain Buruhani Lubanga and Peter died, along with 17 others onboard the Precision Air plane. Fishermen close to the site of the accident helped rescue 24 people.
“Oh! He died a painful death,” Fiona asserts with tears streaming from her eyes.
Fiona says that her 45-year-old husband had placed swimming lessons on his ‘to-do’ list, saying that he would go for classes. Never to be done. Peter was scheduled to return home to his family on November 23rd to witness his son, Leon graduate from preschool the next day.
According to Fiona, the pilot’s life was what you could describe as the life of the party. He was an extrovert, and enthusiastic person who was passionate about the job that he tragically died doing.
Peter’s body was moved from Bukoba to Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salaam on Monday. His brother Alex and friend Michuki Mwangi arrived that Monday night to see to the logistics of moving the body to Kenya on Tuesday evening.
Peter’s Tanzanian friends and colleagues from Precision Air held a farewell ceremony at Mikocheni in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday afternoon. Peter Omondi has left behind his wife, son, three sisters and a brother.
