Politics and policy
Shocked onlookers at the scene where a cargo plane crashed Wednesday morning. Photo/DENISH OCHIENG
By NEVILLE OTUKI
In Summary
- Preliminary investigations by police and airport officials showed that the plane was flying low after take-off and it could have hit an obstacle before crashing into the two-storey building which houses several shops.
Four crew members were killed Wednesday when a plane
carrying khat crashed into a commercial building in Embakasi area,
shortly after take-off at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The plane, a Fokker 50, was transporting khat (miraa) to Mogadishu, Somalia, before the accident which killed the pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and a loader.
Two guards at the building were injured in the crash that happened at around 4am.
Preliminary investigations by police and airport
officials showed that the plane was flying low after take-off and it
could have hit an obstacle before crashing into the two-storey building
which houses several shops.
Banned stimulant
“It is not clear what caused the crash,” Joseph Ngisa, JKIA head of investigations, said.
The Somalia-bound cargo plane, which belonged to Skyward International Ltd, was carrying miraa, a stimulant chewed in east Africa but banned in many countries across the globe.
The UK, a key export market for the commodity,
banned the stimulant last month. The ban infuriated MPs from Meru, where
the crop is mainly grown, arguing that it would leave hundreds of
traders, packers and transporters jobless
Miraa is banned in many Western countries, with the Netherlands and the UK being the latest to outlaw trade and use of the stimulant.
The UK banned the herbal stimulant treating it as a class C drug, like anabolic steroids and ketamine.
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