The airplane had taken off from the capital Nairobi’s Wilson Airport and was destined for Somaliland.
An air ambulance has crashed right into a residential space close to the Kenyan capital Nairobi, killing a minimum of six individuals and injuring two others, in accordance with a neighborhood official.
The mid-size jet took off from Wilson Airport at 2:17pm native time (11:17 GMT) on Thursday and was en path to Somaliland when it got here down in Ruiru, Kiambu County, shortly after 3:00pm (12:00 GMT).
“We’ve misplaced 4 individuals, together with the pilot … it was all deadly,” mentioned Kiambu County Commissioner Henry Wafula.
“The home that it landed on … two individuals once more additionally died,” he mentioned, including that two individuals on the bottom had been “severely injured”.
Pictures taken by reporters from the AFP information company on the scene confirmed big crowds had gathered, as rescue groups from the Kenya Pink Cross and first responders picked by the scattered particles.
“The airplane began burning whereas within the air,” resident Tasha Wanjira informed AFP, earlier than it hurtled down into the small neighborhood.
One other resident, Irene Wangui, described how the “airplane handed by our constructing shaking it”, and mentioned when the plane got here down, “there have been physique components littered throughout.”
As nightfall fell, tons of remained to look at the rescue employees, with residents sobbing as they had been comforted by neighbours.
“I’ve misplaced the whole lot, thank God my youngsters had been not round,” Margaret Wairimu informed AFP, weeping over her destroyed house.
The CEO of the charity Amref Flying Docs, Stephen Gitau, confirmed certainly one of their aeroplanes, a Cessna Quotation XLS, had been “concerned in a deadly accident at present”, however didn’t present any additional particulars.
Gitau mentioned the corporate was specializing in “the protection and well-being of these on board” and mentioned that additional data could be supplied “as it’s confirmed”.
Amref launched a press release saying that it was “cooperating totally with related aviation authorities and emergency response groups to ascertain the information surrounding the state of affairs”.
Based mostly in Nairobi, Amref was based in 1957 because the Flying Docs of East Africa.
