Missing plane found, all aboard dead
A pilot and two passengers who went missing over Murang’a County aboard a light aircraft were on Saturday found dead in the plane wreckage in the Aberdare National Park.
Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo, however, said that the rescue and recovery operation was stopped soon after the wreckage was sighted due to bad weather high up the mountain range.
Mr Kimaiyo said that rescuers will be back to the site Sunday morning after the weather improves so that the bodies and the wreckage may be removed.
“As soon as the wreckage and the bodies were sighted, the weather changed forcing the rescuers to leave,” said Mr Kimaiyo.
The ill-fated aircraft with three passengers, all reported to be foreign nationals, left Lentille airstrip in Laikipia and was expected to land at the Wilson airport at exactly 5.25pm.
It however went missing at around 5pm.
The wreckage was found by the Kenya Wildlife Service helicopter pilot Major Alex Koech, but he could not immediately engage in a recovery exercise.
The pilot of the ill-fated aircraft has been identified as Farrow Trampener.
The aircraft had been chartered by Yellow Wings Air Services Ltd.
According to Mr Kimaiyo, the performance of the airplane, a Cessna type 206, registration number 5Y BUG is suspected to have been hampered by the bad weather.
The Cessna 206 is usually not pressurised and has a ceiling – the highest maximum height it can fly – of 25,000 feet above the sea level.
On Friday, the National Disaster wrote to the Kenya Police Airwing through the police boss for the helicopter to complement the ground search that entered its second day on Saturday in vain.
Bad weather had hampered the search for the aircraft, with the police headquarters turning down the request for a helicopter to assist in the aerial search.
A local air operator, Tropic Air, also joined the search within the Aberdare Ranges besides the ground search by armed officers and volunteers.
The operation was led by Central regional commander Larry Kieng who had before the discovery said that the information via satellite traced an international call made to South Africa by one of the three passengers on board where the signal was later lost.
