Flight 494 took off from Dar es Salaam around 06:00 East Africa Time and was scheduled to land at Bukoba around 08:30 after a stopover at Mwanza. A survivor stated that the pilots had to reroute the aircraft due to the deteriorating weather and that the aircraft had to fly towards the Tanzanian-Ugandan border before turning back towards Bukoba. The passenger further stated that during their approach, they encountered heavy turbulence after being informed that they were landing shortly, eventually finding themselves in the lake with the plane beginning to take on water.[4][9]