Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has revealed what caused the transient closure of the runway at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Monday morning.
In a statement, Murkomen said the closure of the single runway at JKIA was occasioned by the puncturing of 11 rear tyres of a Singapore Airlines cargo plane while trying to take off.
“This morning at about 0810hrs a Singapore airline cargo aircraft B747-400 aborted take-off due to a technical problem at JKIA. As a result, 11 out of 16 rear tyres were punctured,” revealed Murkomen.
The CS says, as a result of the mishap on the JKIA runway, technicians from Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), Kenya Airways (KQ) and Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) intervened.
The intervention of the aviation industry stakeholders saw more than 100 tonnes of freight removed from the Singaporean airplane as they also replaced the punctured tyres.
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“The process to remove the aircraft from the runway required evacuation of 100 tonnes of cargo and replacement of the damaged tyre before the aircraft can be towed off the runaway,” indicated the CS.
Murkomen assured all those affected by the suspension of all incoming and outgoing planes that the officials involved in the exercise were working to ensure normal operations resume.
“Since the aircraft is at the end of the runway, we have been having limited take-off operations involving smaller aircrafts up to Code C,” intimated the Cabinet Secretary.
He, however, assured that normal operations will resume on Kenya’s main international airport’s single Category-1 runway will resume by 3:30pm on Monday.
“We regret the inconvenience caused by this unfortunate incident, however our priority remains safety of our passengers.
“We estimate that the process of removing the aircraft from the runway will be completed by 1530hrs.”
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