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Kenya Airways plane forced to turn back to Johannesburg over ‘stowaway’

By Hilary Kimuyu November 6th, 2019 1 min read

A Kenya Airways Boeing 787 was forced to return to Johannesburg on Tuesday over an alleged ‘stowaway’.

The aircraft had departed from Johannesburg to Nairobi with a mechanic still onboard.

According to the Aviation Herald, the plane was climbing out of Johannesburg when the crew was informed that a maintenance engineer should have been left in Johannesburg.

The crew were forced to turn around and return to Johannesburg about 30 minutes later.

The maintenance engineer was reportedly discovered after the plane landed on the runway.

“He’s here and conscious!” Aviation Herald quoted the crew.

Kenya Airways however did not confirm claims of the “stowaway” only stating, “… we had an air-turn back due to operational reasons, however the same flight left Johannesburg at 1335Hrs.”

DELAYED ARRIVAL

The aircraft remained on the ground for about an hour, then departed again and reached Nairobi with a delay of 105 minutes.

In June, the body of a male stowaway fell off a Kenya Airways plane moments before it landed at London’s Heathrow Airport.

The KQ Flight 100 was travelling from Nairobi to London.

Following the discovery of the body, which had no identification, the aircraft was inspected and a bag with food and clothes was discovered at the rear left landing gear.

Police in London last month released a sketch of the stowaway and have asked anyone who can assist with the investigation to call the Metropolitan Police quoting the reference CAD 5395/30 June.