Jetlink plane in Kisumu mishap

A Jetlink plane. One of its flights veered off the runway and crash landed at the Kisumu Airport in bad weather March 17, 2011. No one was injured. FILE

A Jetlink plane has veered off the runway and crash landed at the Kisumu Airport in bad weather. 

Flight 752 had left Nairobi at 7.30 am Thursday but overran the runaway by two metres in misty weather as it taxied.

The pilot, however, was able to steer the plane away from a fence situated at the end of the runway and only a hundred metres from Lake Victoria.

None of the 40 passengers on board were hurt. They were assisted onto a bus and driven out of the airport.

Confirming the incident, Jetlink operations manager Jeff Oyier said while there was no damage to the plane, standard procedures required the intervention of civil aviation personnel.

In a statement, the management said that the pilot was in control of the aircraft at all times and passengers were not in any danger.

“None of the passengers or crew was injured in this minor mishap,” said Jetlink Managing Director Captain Elly Aluvaale.

Among the passengers was Matungu MP David Were, who is also the chairman of Parliament’s Transport Committee.

He gave the Nation an insight of what transpired.

“I think the pilot came in too high, such that by the time he hit the runway, he had very little space left to bring the plane to a stop,” said Mr Were.

He said the light rains at the airport had made the tarmac slippery and some mist also affected the visibility.

“He swerved and took us into a bush. Had he not swerved, we’d have ended up in the water; the lake is barely 20 minutes from where I am,” Mr Were told the Nation on phone minutes after the 8am mishap.

Another passenger who tipped the Nation about the accident corroborated Mr Were’s statement adding that no one was injured; but the plane “is damaged”.

Mr Were said the accident brought him face to face with the poor disaster preparedness at the airport and noted that the emergency services were significantly late in their response.

“The ambulance came in 20 minutes late. The fire truck, came here half an hour later. Surely, if the plane had ended up in the water, nobody would have been saved,” said the MP.

He assured his constituents that he was safe, but maintained that the Managing Director of the Kenya Airports Authority Stephen Gichuki, had to put his house in order.

KAA manages all the airports in the country.

Additional reporting by Abiud Ochieng'