By HARRY MISIKO
Monday, November 28, 2016
Passengers wait for flights at JKIA on Monday morning. PHOTO | COURTESY | NATION MEDIA GROUP
There were long queues and utter confusion at Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi on Monday morning after flights to regional and international destinations delayed, some for over 12 hours.
The Kenya Airports Authority, in a Twitter update, on Sunday said the delays were caused by a small aircraft that crash-landed on the main runway.
"Jambo, at 4.55pm today, an aircraft from Somalia made an Emergency Landing at JKIA. It landed on its belly and veered off the Runway," it said.
Four passengers on the plane escaped unhurt.
INCONVINIENCE
Kenya Airways conformed the delay saying, "JKIA runway temporarily closed due aircraft disabled on runway. Departures and landings temporarily on hold. Inconvenience regretted."
All arriving planes were diverted to Moi International Airport in Mombasa, some 482 kilometres from the capital, and other airports as KAA staff battled to clear the plane and re-open the runway.
Some passengers who spoke to Nation.co.ke said they spent the night at the airport after their journeys were interrupted.
Some took to social media to vent their frustrations over what they said was "lack of or scanty information from airport managers and workers".
Rush Michugh, who was travelling to Dar es Salaam, said she arrived at 5.10am to find passengers who had slept at the airport.
"My flight was at 6.50am but it has been delayed. The display screens have been blank for hours and they have just started showing flight information now," she told Nation.co.ke.
And while the KAA and KQ had announced the removal of the Somalia aircraft on Sunday at 10pm, the delays persisted to as late as 7am on Monday.
"The runway an JKIA is now open for operations. Due to the temporal closure KQ552 and KQ348 have been cancelled," KQ said in a tweet.
A passenger sleeps on the chair at JKIA on November 28, 2016 due to flight delays. PHOTO | COURTESY | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The airline on Monday said it expected further delays due to the Sunday runway closure.
"We expect spillover delays on todays' operations due runway closure yesterday at JKIA. Keep checking our website for updated departure times," it said.
JKIA, the regional air travel hub, has a single emergency landing runway and the Sunday mishap has put the airport on the spot over its preparedness to handle such emergencies.