Six folks have been killed after a light-weight plane belonging to a medical charity crashed in Kenya’s capitol, Nairobi, in response to a neighborhood official.
Charity AMREF Flying Docs mentioned the Cessna aircraft took off from Wilson airport on Thursday afternoon and was en path to Hargeisa in Somalia when it crashed and burst into flames at a residential constructing in Nairobi’s Githurai space.
Kiambu County Commissioner Henry Wafula mentioned six folks on the aircraft have been killed, together with medical doctors, nurses and the pilot – in addition to one other two folks on the bottom, whereas two others have been severely injured.
Investigators have been despatched to the scene of the crash to ascertain its trigger.
The aircraft misplaced each radio and radar contact with air visitors management simply three minutes after take off, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority mentioned.
There have been 4 crew and AMREF workers on board, the charity mentioned.
“Right now, we’re cooperating absolutely with related aviation authorities and emergency response groups to ascertain the info surrounding the scenario,” AMREF CEO Stephen Gitau mentioned in an announcement.
The Kenya Defence Forces and the Nationwide Police Service have been deployed to the scene to conduct search and restoration operations.
Patricia Kombo, an eyewitness, informed the BBC that she was in a cab along with her mates heading to Githurai after they heard a loud bang and a pink flash forward of them.
“Earlier than I might take my cellphone to document the flash was gone and smoke was billowing. We then heard folks screaming and working and so we ended our journey.
“We then found it was a aircraft crash and noticed the sunken gap the crash had created within the floor,” she mentioned.
In a separate incident, a prepare and a bus collided at a railway crossing close to Naivasha city, central Kenya, killing at the very least 4 folks, in response to Reuters information company citing a Pink Cross employee.
The Kenya Pipeline Firm, whose bus was concerned within the incident, mentioned it was carrying workers ending their morning shift at one in every of its coaching centres and that every one injured workers had been taken to hospital for therapy.