Operations disrupted at Wilson Airport after aircraft crash-lands
Flight operations at Wilson Airport were on Saturday disrupted for hours after an aircraft crash-landed at the airport in Nairobi.
The aircraft, a small Cessna registration number 5Y CEZ belonging to 99 flying school, made a crash-landing after some confusions from the control tower.
According to an eyewitness who spoke to Nation, the aircraft had an instructor from the flying school and a student aboard when it made the landing on one of its wings at runway 32 some minutes before noon.
“The aircraft was coming down to, I think, runway 32 and we thought at first it was because of the wind it got blown to the grass and landed down with one of its wings,” said the witness who did not want his name to be published.
He said that he suspected the problem emanated from power problems at the control tower, saying that one of the people at the control tower said that power failure might have resulted into the landing.
DENIED ENTRY
“When I went to the scene I heard one guy from the control tower say that it was because of power failure. They were doing simulations and the guy switched off the power and restarted it again during emergency landing. So they switched off the power but when they tried to restart it, it failed,” he said.
The eyewitness said that the aircraft had an instructor and a student but it was only the instructor, who was flying the aircraft, who was taken to the hospital by an Amref ambulance which was present at the airport.
“I am not sure if there were other students but I think only one was present. I saw the instructor being taken to the Amref ambulance but I cannot verify the extent of his injury. I also do not know the whereabouts of the student,” he said.
At about 1.30pm, Airport Accident Investigation personnel arrived at the airport and quickly made their way to the scene of the accident.
Journalist were denied entry into the airport by the security officers who said that the incident was normal and that the officers would soon clear the scene of the incident for the resumption of normal operations.
Wilson Airport is one the busiest airport in the country and serves majorly domestic cargo and commercials airlines.