Pilot whose plane crashed into a lake in Tanzania desperately tried to get out of the cockpit before he died, witness says

• A Tanzanian passenger plane crashed into Lake Victoria on Sunday, killing 19 people on board.
• A fisherman, who arrived at the scene early, told the BBC he communicated with one of the pilots.

One of the pilots of a commercial plane that crashed into a Tanzanian lake was desperately trying to get out of the cockpit before he died, a local fisherman told the BBC.

Majaliwa Jackson, the fisherman, was among the first people at the site of the Precision Air plane crash in Tanzania's Lake Victoria on Sunday.

The crash, which was caused by storms and heavy rains, killed at least 19 people, the BBC reported.

After watching in disbelief as the plane crash-landed, Jackson told the BBC that he and three other fishermen rushed to the rear door of the aircraft to smash it open with a rowing oar. Their actions helped some of the 43 people on board escape.

Jackson said he then swam to the front of the plane and communicated with one of the plane's two pilots by making hand gestures through the cockpit window.

"He directed me to break the window screen," Jackson told the BBC. "I emerged from the water and asked airport security, who had arrived, if they have any tools that we can use to smash the screen."

"They gave me an axe, but I was stopped by a man with a public announcement speaker from going down and smashing the screen," he continued. "He said they were already in communication with the pilots and there was no water leakage in the cockpit."

Jackson said he dived into the water once more and "waved goodbye to the pilot," who indicated that he still wanted to be rescued.

"He pointed out the cockpit emergency door to me," Jackson told the BBC. "I swam back up and took a rope and tied it to the door and we tried to pull it with other boats, but the rope broke and hit me in the face and knocked me unconscious. The next thing I know I was here at the hospital."

Both pilots were among the 19 confirmed dead, the BBC reported.

Jackson, who spoke to the BBC from his hospital bed in the town of Bukoba, was awarded 1 million Tanzanian shillings ($430) for intervening actions, the network said.

He was also offered a job in the fire and rescue brigade, though it is unclear whether he accepted it.

The plane took off from Tanzania's commercial capital of Dar es Salaam on Sunday morning and was supposed to land in Bukoba when it instead plunged into Lake Victoria, Africa's largest freshwater lake. Of the 43 people on board, there were 24 survivors, Precision Air told CNN.

A spokesperson for Precision Air did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.