The Amref plane accident kills six people in Nairobi, said Kenyan manager

Six people were killed after a light plane belonging to a medical charity crashed at the Kenya Capitol, Nairobi, according to a local official.

The doctors of the charitable organization Amref Flying said that the Cessna plane had taken off from Wilson airport on Thursday afternoon and was on the way to Hargeisa in Somalia when he crashed and ignited in a residential building in the region of Githui in Nairobi.

Kiambu County Commissioner Henry Wafula said that four people on the plane had been killed, including doctors, nurses and the pilot – as well as two other people on the ground, while two others were seriously injured.

Investigators were sent to the accident to establish their cause.

The plane lost radio contact and radar with air traffic control only three minutes after takeoff, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said.

There were four members of the crew and AMREF staff, said the charity.

“For the moment, we are fully cooperating with the relevant aeronautical authorities and emergency intervention teams to establish the facts surrounding the situation,” said Stephen Gitar, CEO of Amref, in a statement.

Kenya’s defense forces and national police services were deployed to the scene to carry out research and recovery operations.

Patricia Kombo, an eyewitness, told the BBC that she was in a taxi with her friends heading towards Githui when they heard a strong blow and a red flash in front of them.

“Before we could take my phone to record the flash, he disappeared and smoking was swelling. We then heard people screaming and running and we therefore finished our trip.

“We then discovered that it was an airplane accident and saw the hole pressed that the accident had created in the ground,” she said.

In a separate incident, a train and a bus collided in a railway crossing near the city of Naivasha, in central Kenya, killing at least four people, according to the Reuters news agency quoting a worker from the Red Cross.

Kenya Pipeline Company, whose bus was involved in the incident, said it was carrying staff finishing her morning quarter in one of her training centers and that all the wounded staff had been transported to the hospital for treatment.