Butiaba – Entebbe

On January 24, 1954 at 12:00 AM, Butiaba – Entebbe experienced a crash involving De Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide, operated by East African Airways, with the event recorded near Butiaba Western.

The flight was categorized as charter/taxi (non scheduled revenue flight) and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

4 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 4 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 3, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The American writer Ernest Hemingway and his wife Mary were completing a safari in the region of the Muchison Falls in Uganda when their Cessna 180 registered VP-KLI hit a utility pole and crashed in a field on January 23. As they were wounded, it was decided to transfer them to Entebbe and a DH.89 of East African Airways was chartered. While taking off from Butiaba Airstrip, the Dragon exploded and crashed in flames. The aircraft was destroyed and all four occupants were seriously injured and burned.

Aircraft reference details include registration VP-KEA, MSN 6890, year of manufacture 1945.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 1.4342°, 31.3517°.