The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has revealed intricate details of a plane breakdown that occurred at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) that caused the runway to be briefly closed on Wednesday night, February 23.
In a statement, KCAA Director General Gilbert Kibe affirmed that the aircraft had developed a nose wheel steering jam while landing on the JKIA runway.
“At 5pm this evening, an aircraft developed a nose wheel steering jam on entry into the runway at JKIA through one of the taxiways,” he stated.
He added that this led to a breakdown of close to 4 hours and 30 minutes as several engineering teams from different airlines tried to carefully remove the aircraft, while at the same time ensuring that they didn't break the nose wheel.
He affirmed that investigations had been launched in order to uncover more details about the incident. that caused panic among some passengers who had scheduled flights.
The breakdown led to a brief closure of the runway- causing 15 aircrafts to be diverted to other airports whereby nine planes went to Mombasa, three to Kilimanjaro, two to Entebbe and one to Dar es Salaam.
At around about 9.30 pm, the Kenya Airports Authority, (KAA), announced that normal services had resumed at JKIA.
"Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) runway has been cleared and opened. Normal operations have resumed. Passengers are encouraged to contact their respective airlines for their flight status," KAA stated.
A section of passengers had taken to social media lamenting that they were stranded at Malindi and Moi airports after being informed that the JKIA runway had been briefly closed.
Others, also called upon the airport to consider having multiple runways to avoid future occurrences.
The airport recently released artistic impressions of its facelift- indicating that a second runway was in the works in a bid to accommodate more flights.
"The expansion of JKIA is an important infrastructure improvement for long term economic development in Kenya.
"As such, the accruing impact of the proposed airfield expansion project at JKIA is expected to apply across the national economy, allowing the region to more fully exploit its potential," read part of a report on the JKIA facelift program.
