Two people, a student and an instructor, died on Tuesday when two planes collided midair in Nairobi.
The collision involved a Safarilink De Havilland Canada DHC-8-300 aircraft and a Cessna 172 plane owned by a training school, Ninety-Nines Flying, at the Wilson Airport.
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk, registration 5Y-NNJ, was operated by the Ninety-Nines Flying School.
The Safarilink aircraft was forced to turn back midair shortly after taking off from the airport. It was heading to Diani with 39 passengers and five crew members on board. All on board are safe.
Safarilink said it was forced to cut short flight 053 due to a “loud bang”. Its plane landed safely at Wilson Airport while the Cessna crashed at the Nairobi National Park.
“The crew decided to immediately turn back to Wilson Airport for further inspection and assessment and landed safely,” Safarilink said in a statement.
“Safarilink Aviation wishes to report that this morning at 9:45 Local Time our flight number 053 with 39 passengers and 5 crew on board headed to Diani experienced a loud bang soon after take-off. The crew decided to immediately turn back to Nairobi- Wilson Airport for further inspection and assessment and landed safely. There were no casualties reported.
The relevant agencies have been notified and together with Safarilink Aviation are investigating this incident. We will provide an update once we have more information,” further read the statement in part.