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No fewer than 10 persons including doctors and nurses have been confirmed dead following an aircraft and train crashes that occurred separately in Kenya.
While the train is said to be a public facility, the plane belonged to a medical charity organisation based in Nairobi, the country’s capital.
The plane, as learnt, left Wilson airport in Nairobi for Hargeisa in Somalia where the deceased victims were expected to perform free medical services.
Meanwhile, a few minutes after it was airborne on Thursday, Charity AMREF Flying Doctors disclosed that the Cessna plane, crashed and burst into flames on a residential building in the country’s capital.
Kiambu County Commissioner, Henry Wafula, said six people including doctors, nurses and the pilot – as well as another two people on the ground, while two others were seriously injured.
As gathered, investigators have been despatched to the scene of the crash to establish its cause.
Sources said that the plane lost both radio and radar contact with air traffic control just three minutes after take off.
AMREF CEO, Stephen Gitau, disclosed that four crew and AMREF staff on board of the ill-fated airplane.
“At this time, we are cooperating fully with relevant aviation authorities and emergency response teams to establish the facts surrounding the situation,” he added.
The Kenya Defence Forces and the National Police Service have been deployed to the scene to conduct search and recovery operations.
Patricia Kombo, an eyewitness, told newsmen that she was in a cab with her friends heading to Githurai when they heard a loud bang and a red flash ahead of them.
“Before I could take my phone to record the flash was gone and smoke was billowing. We then heard people screaming and running and so we ended our trip.
“We then discovered it was a plane crash and saw the sunken hole the crash had created in the ground,” she said.
In a separate incident, a train and a bus collided at a railway crossing near Naivasha town, central Kenya, killing at least four people.
The Kenya Pipeline Company, whose bus was involved in the incident, said it was carrying staff finishing their morning shift at one of its training centres and that all injured staff had been taken to hospital for treatment.
