Kenya Passenger Plane Disappear
A search for a small passenger plane that disappeared in Kenya on Tuesday was called off for the evening but will resume at dawn, said late on Tuesday. The plane had taken off from Kitale, a town in Kenya’s west, en route to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital, Nairobi, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said.
It carried eight passengers and two crew members, according to a statement on the website of Fly Sax, the operator of the flight. “Search and rescue teams were activated immediately and have no result on the missing plane as at Tuesday evening.
“They however, paused the search for the night and shall resume at first light Wednesday morning,” KCAA said.
The FySax-managed Cesna C208 craft, registration number 5Y-CAC was bound for Nairobi from Kitale when it went missing on Tuesday. With over 17 hours since the light aircraft was reported missing, here is the known timeline of the disappearance and search operation. ALSO READ: JKIA bound aircraft goes missing Tuesday 4:05PM The plane left Kitale airstrip with eight passengers and two female crew members on board. It was expected in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport about an hour later.
The flight operator FlySax, a subsidiary of Fly540 says in a statement says the plane was last seen on the radar at 5:20PM, the time it was expected to land at JKIA. Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCCA) director-general Gilbert Kibe however released a statement saying the flight was last spotted at 2:02PM. He adds that it was 40 nautical miles from Nairobi and was flying at 11,000ft above the sea level. The time given by KCCA is before the flight left Kitale at 4:05.
Tuesday 6:00PM Information emerge that the plane has earlier flown to Homa Bay, Maasai Mara and was its last trip from Kitale to Nairobi when it went missing. More information emerge that the two pilots were redirected to JKIA and were to land through Utawala direction. This, according to the officials, forced the pilots to take the Kinangop route which is considered dangerous because of the weather. Tuesday evening Emergency service providers at Wilson Airport and Jomo Kenyatta International Aiport are mobilised to help track the missing caravan. The planes airline says it is not aware of its location. “At present, the East Africa Safari Air Express has no knowledge of the location or condition of the aircraft or its occupants,” it said in a statement Tuesday 9:00PM .
The multi-agency search team from Air Accident Investigation Division (AAID), KCCA, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and others pause the search for the night with no recovery. KCCA says bad weather conditions are making the search and rescue efforts difficult. Wednesday 4AM Kenya Wildlife Services Assistant Director in charge of Mountain Areas Simon Gitau says the search operations has resumed. He adds that areal search is still difficult owing to the bad weather. Phone signals from the plane are located in the Aberdares in Nyandarua County