Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Ijara OCPD Rems Warui said the site of the crash was 17km away from the border and the area was uninhabited and under intense surveillance by security personnel making it difficult for an enemy to launch a successful attack on the plane.
Warui further said that the Somalia side of the border was also a vast stretch of uninhabited territory.
The OCPD said that the plane was flying within Kenyan airspace from Kyuna in Lamu to Hulugho and was therefore out of possible enemy territory.
Intelligence sources confirmed that no explosion was heard when the plane crashed. They said that the plane first hit a tree then rammed into a fence within the compound of the military camp.
The sources, however, said that Hulugho was notorious for very strong winds and hinted that the aircraft might have been overpowered by the winds.
The plane, registration number KAY 515, went down at 2.30 pm local time Tuesday while carrying three senior military officers including an army colonel and two pilots of the rank of major. The officers who sustained injuries were said to be on normal patrol.
The army Tuesday night declined to make any conclusion as to what might have brought the chopper down saying it was too early to establish the cause of the crash.
It however ruled out an attack saying it could have caught fire had it been hit from the ground.
The area near the Kenya-Somali border has been under intensive surveillance to keep off the Al-Shabab militia who are involved in fighting with the government in the lawless country.
The militias have threatened to invade Kenya and annex the North eastern province.
The accident came two weeks after another chopper carrying an assistant minister, police commissioner and journalist crashed in Kapsabet.
Source: KBC, May 27, 2009