Philip Onyango
20 April 2001
More than 262 passengers, among them foreign tourists, narrowly escaped death yesterday when a plane caught fire in mid-air after hitting a bird.
The Germany-bound Boeing 767 airliner made an emergency landing at Mombasa's Moi International Airport.
The jet, belonging to LTU of Germany, hit the bird moments after take-off and landed after circling Mombasa for 24 minutes.
After the landing, the panic-stricken passengers, most of them Germans, disembarked and were taken back to their hotel rooms.
The pilot, Captain Jager Gerd Georg, said the bird hit the left engine during take-off, paralysing it. However, he said, he was able to control the contraption with the other engine and advised passengers on safety measures.
"I saw a bird during take-off and heard a violent vibration, but there was no indication of a mishap. Later, I heard a bang and made an emergency landing after struggling with the plane for some minutes," he said.
LTU technical manager Peter Stampfli said the plane was heading for Dusseldolf and had two pilots, eight crew members and 252 passengers.
It would take three days to repair the damaged engine, he said. The passengers said the plane had taken off at 9.10 am but made the landing at 9.34 am.
One said the shaken passengers shouted at the top of their voices, calling for divine intervention, as the jet circled Mombasa.
Mr Rainer Martin said they sensed trouble when the plane took the Malindi route instead of the Nairobi one.
The plane then immediately started to go round in circles, sending the passengers into a panic.
Mr Abdul Mohammed said he was asleep and was woken up by shouting. He strictly followed the pilot's instructions.
A Kenyan travelling to Germany, Mr Said Kazungu, described the incident as unfortunate, saying he was looking forward to his arrival in the Central European country.
Other passengers said they had been to the Coast for the past three weeks and were returning home.
They appealed for an alternative flight as they would be inconvenienced if they have to wait for the three days the plane would be repaired.
By the time the Nation team arrived at the airport, fire engines were fighting the flames while passengers' luggage was being offloaded.
On March 18, a lapse in communication between controllers if Mombasa's Moi International Airport and Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport almost led to a mid-air collision.
On the same month, a British comedian Rowan Atkinson, better known as Mr Bean, took control of a light aircraft on a flight from Mombasa to Nairobi when the pilot passed out. Mr Bean had never flown a plane before.
Early, last year a military plane in a joint exercise between the three sister East African countries and the American army crashed at the Moi International airport the crew escaped with injuries.
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