Updated: Fourth plane accident at Nairobi airport in three months.
A Beech 1900D (not the same airline) similar to the one that crashed in Kenya. Photo by Wesisnay.
One Blue Bird Aviation pilot was killed when a Beechcraft 1900D (registration 5Y-VVQ) crash landed at Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya (Original reports point to two pilots being killed, but this was adjusted by Kenyan media recently– I’ll update this if anything changes). The accident happened yesterday (November 9, 2009) sometime after 8:00 AM local time.
The cargo aircraft, carrying a hallucinogenic plant known as miraa that is banned here in the US, departed Wilson Airport (HKNW) for Mogadishu in Somalia at 6:30 AM. One hundred and seventy miles into the flight, the aircraft developed an unspecified problem and a decision was made to return to HKNW. While trying to perform an emergency landing at the airport, the aircraft struck the airport fence and crashed into a ditch, catching fire in the process. The pilot and copilot were pulled alive from the wreckage, but the pilot died on the way to the hospital while the remaining survivor is at the hospital. The airplane had been aloft for nearly two hours when it crashed.
It is the fourth accident in three months at Wilson Airport. Local investigators have been able to retrieve the flight recorders. While the pilots indicated to local controllers that they were having problems with the aircraft, it is unclear if they specified the nature of the difficulties. I’m particularly curious as to why this plane returned to Nairobi after being so far along the flight. Was the problem originally not severe enough to warrant an immediate emergency landing or did the pilots try to get back to Nairobi recklessly? I understand that at Lamu and Garissa (both in Kenya), airports that were closer to the plane at the reported time of trouble, Blue Bird Aviation maintains operations so they may have been better options to land in.
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