An aircraft operated by Silverstone Air was forced to make an emergency landing in Eldoret’s Moi International Airport on Monday after a wheel fell off during take-off/COURTESY
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 12 – The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has ordered the provisional grounding of Silverstone Air’s Dash 8 fleet pending a probe into incidents involving the aircraft.
The safety of the low-cost domestic carrier was called into question following two recent incidents; the latest involving its flight from Lodwar which lost its rear wheel after takeoff on October 28.
The plane made an emergency landing at in Eldoret’s Moi International Airport.
In another incident, a Silverstone-operated aircraft crashed outside Nairobi’s Wilson Airport shortly after takeoff.
KCAA Director General Gilbert Kibe told National Assembly Transport committee on Tuesday the agency is keen to establish circumstances which led to the October 28 incident/FILE
KCAA Director General Gilbert Kibe told National Assembly Transport committee on Tuesday the agency is keen to establish circumstances which led to the October 28 incident.
“That means they cannot operate the Dash 8 kind of airplane until we come up with a final report on what may have happened with that tyre having fallen off. We are continuing with surveillance audit inspections not only for that airline but even for other airlines.
“So what I am saying is that the rest of the Silverstone Air fleet that are being operated today are operating as ops normal. We have not grounded their flights,” Captain Kibe clarified.
According to Silverstone Air website they have 4 Dash 8-100s and 3 Dash 8-300s.
It has a fleet capacity of 11 planes. This means that only three aircraft will be operational.
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