Kenya mid-air collision kills student pilot and trainer

A student pilot and trainer have been killed after their aircraft collided with a passenger plane over Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, police say.

The aircraft, belonging to a flying school, then crashed in Nairobi National Park, killing the two people.

The Safarilink passenger plane returned to Nairobi’s Wilson Airport from where it had taken off with 44 people on board. The 39 passengers and five crew members were all unharmed, the airline said. The aircraft, bound for Diani on Kenya’s coast, had “experienced a loud bang soon after take-off” it said.

The Cessna plane operated by Ninety-Nines Flying School crashed in the game park about 10km (six miles) from the airport.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said the accident had taken place at around 10:05 local time (07:05 GMT) on Tuesday. Its air accidents department and the police had begun an investigation into the cause of the accident, it said.

Wilson Airport is a small but very busy airport in the capital that mostly serves domestic flights. There have been a number of accidents over the years involving small aircraft from the airport.

(BBC)