Kenya Airways, on Sunday, December 17, confirmed an incident where a plane en route to Kigali from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) was forced to turn back due to low visibility.
According to a statement by KQ, JKIA Air Traffic Control encountered deteriorating weather as it was approaching Kigali International Airport.
The plane subsequently made two attempts to land but failed forcing it to return to JKIA.
"After two unsuccessful attempts to land, the crew elected to return to Nairobi for the safety of passengers and crew on board," KQ stated in their communique.
The flight landed in Nairobi safely at around 09.45 hours and passengers transferred to the next available flight.
"We sincerely apologise to our guests for the inconvenience and assure our customers that their safety and that of our crew is our highest priority," KQ statement added.
Earlier, RwandAir, the official national carrier for Rwanda, had issued an alert to all flights destined for its airports highlighting a dense fog.
"Due to poor visibility as a result of heavy fog at Kigali International Airport, we are expecting flight delays to/from Kigali. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.," read the statement in part.
Air standards are a normal occurrence in the aviation industry and turnbacks are common safety procedures to be followed when the weather is deteriorating.
Yesterday, another Kenyan plane en route to Dubai was forced to return to Nairobi following a technical issue.
A statement released on Saturday stated that the Air Traffic control encountered tyre debris during a runway inspection.
This called for an investigation that established that the tyre was from KQ 310, which was by then heading to Dubai.
Following consultations and safety procedures, KQ had to turn back the plane which landed safely at 11:46 am at JKIA airport.
