- Nine flights were diverted to Mombasa, three to Kilimanjaro, two to Entebbe and one to Dar es Salaam.
- Many passengers were stranded until 9.30 when operations resumed
Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has started investigations into an incident that saw services paralyzed at JKIA after a Fly 540 aircraft stalled on the runway for almost four hours on Wednesday.
Director-General Gilbert Kibe said the incident happened at about 5 pm when a Fly540 Dash 8-300 aircraft developed a nose wheel steering jam on entry into the runway at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport through one of the taxiways.
He said several attempts by a number of engineering teams from different airlines faced challenges to remove the aircraft taking into account the need to avoid breakage of the nose wheel and it took four and half hours to remove it.
“An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the problem,” said Kibe on Thursday.
The incident caused 15 diversions to Mombasa, Kilimanjaro, Entebbe and Dar es Salaam while four flights did not take off then.
Nine flights were diverted to Mombasa, three to Kilimanjaro, two to Entebbe and one to Dar es Salaam.
The planes later landed at JKIA hours later.
Many passengers were stranded until 9.30 when operations resumed.
“KCAA, the airline and airport operator, sincerely apologise for the disruption in air services at JKIA,” Kibe said in a statement.
Many of the affected took to social media questioning why it took long to address the issue.
Others asked how and why JKIA is running one runway with its status.
Edited by Mercy Asamba