A plane belonging to German leisure airline Condor was on Tuesday forced to make an emergency landing at Moi International Airport in Mombasa.
Confirming the incident, Coast regional police boss Noah Mwivanda stated that the plane touched down at the airport following a bird strike.
Passengers on board were en route to Zanzibar at the time of the incident.
[caption caption="The Condor plane"]
[/caption]
Authorities stated that the incident took place at 9:30 AM shortly after the plane had taken off.
According to eyewitnesses, two crows flew into one of the plane's engines prompting the pilots to manoeuvre the plane to a safe landing.
[caption caption="plane's crew members leave Moi International Airport after safe evacuation, Courtesy"]
[/caption]
The affected passengers were evacuated as airport officials took them to a hotel in Nyali awaiting the issue to be resolved.
"We just thank God we are okay. We are now heading to the hotel until tomorrow. I can't wait to get there," A passenger who only identified himself as Morris stated.
Bird strikes are a significant threat to flight safety and have caused a number of accidents with human casualties.
Though not prevalent in Kenya, there are over 13,000 bird strikes annually in the United States.
The majority of bird strikes (65%) cause little damage to the aircraft; however, the collision is usually fatal to the bird(s) involved.
Kenyans.co.ke has established that losing an engine in flight is not a particularly serious problem, as the pilots are trained to fly the aircraft should an engine fail.
[caption caption="The German plane at Moi International Airport"]
[/caption]
