Air strip workers and locals rushed to the crash site and pulled survivors out of the mangled wreckage. There were 11 tourists on board the aircraft: five Germans, four Americans and two Czechs. The group was originally reported to be all German.

Peterson Maelo, the Narok district police chief in the East African country, said a middle-aged man and an elderly woman were killed along with the Kenyan two pilots.

"The twin-engine plane nose-dived about one kilometre (0.62 mile) from the air strip and landed in a marshland," Maelo told Reuters. The nine survivors, he said, had been airlifted to the capital, Nairobi, and three were in serious condition.

Chimwaga Mongo, Narok South's district commissioner, said it appeared the plane failed to gain altitude before careering into the ground.

"Moments after the plane took off we realised that all was not well. Suddenly it came down crashing into a marshland," said John Kipetu, an employee at the Fairmont Mara Safari Club who witnessed the incident. (Writing By Drazen Jorgic; Editing by George Obulutsa and Mark Heinrich)

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