Maputo, Mozambique: Preliminary investigations into a November plane crash that killed 33 people aboard show that the pilot intentionally brought the Mozambican plane down, an aviation official said.

The Mozambican Airlines plane was bound for Angola with six crewmembers and 27 passengers, including 10 Mozambican, nine Angolans, five Portuguese, and one citizen each from France, Brazil and China, according to the airline. The aircraft went down November 29 in a Namibian national park near the border with Angola.

Wreckage of a Mozambique Airlines plane which crashed November 29, in the Bwabwata National Park, in Namibia. Credit:AP

"There was an intention to crash the plane," Joao Abreu, chairman of the Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute said on Saturday after gathering recordings and preliminary investigations.

The pilot's motives are unknown, and investigations will continue, he said, naming the pilot as Herminio dos Santos Fernandes. The co-pilot was in the bathroom at the time, he said.