Signals from missing FlySax plane located in Kinangop
Kinangop lies on the edges of Aberdare Forest in Nyandarua County. MAP | GOOGLE
What you need to know:
The plane was some 60 kilometres from its destination, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital Nairobi.
- The plane left Kitale shortly after 4pm with eight passengers and two crew members on board and was expected in Nairobi about an hour later.
Phone signals from the FlySax plane that went missing on Tuesday evening have been located in the Aberdares in Nyandarua County.
Kenya Wildlife Services Assistant Director in charge of Mountain Areas Simon Gitau on Wednesday told the Nation that they would concentrate their search in the Kinangop, where the signals were located.
SIGNALS
Last signals, he said, were picked around Njambini area.
“We are not sure how long the search is likely to take but Njambini remains an area of interest,” he said.
Mr Gitau said they resumed the search, which was called off on Tuesday night, at 4am but aerial hunt for the craft is still hampered by bad weather.
Enough rescue teams, Mr Gitau said , have been mobilised but bad weather is delaying the search.
By 7am, a section of the search and rescue team was waiting to be airlifted from Njambini playground to the search zone.
A team from Kenya Red Cross was also heading to Njambini to join the operation.
In Kinangop, a security team is holed up in a meeting, with Nyandarua County Commissioner Boaz Cherutich and his team on their way to Njambini to join the search team.
The Cesna C208 craft, registration number 5Y-CAC, was flying from a Kitale airstrip in Trans-Nzoia County when it lost contact with control tower at 5pm Tuesday in the Aberdares.
10 MISSING
The plane was some 60 kilometres from its destination, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital Nairobi.
The plane left Kitale shortly after 4pm with eight passengers and two crew members on board and was expected in Nairobi about an hour later.
The missing 12-passenger plane is operated by East Africa Safari Air Express, a subsidiary of Fly540.
A statement from the airline acknowledged its aircraft was indeed missing but combined efforts of KCAA, Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and the Air Accident Investigation Division of Kenya (AAID), had been going on to locate it.
"At present, the East Africa Safari Air Express has no knowledge of the location or condition of the aircraft or its occupants," the airline said in the statement.
“Relatives and next of kin (of the passengers and crew) can convene at Weston Hotel for more information."
The airline's crisis hotline is +254 706 303 305.
More follows.
