Kenyan aviation authorities probe crash of UN relief planes

LOKICHOGGIO, Kenya, June 11, 2005 (PANA) — Kenyan civil aviation authorities are investigating separate crashes here Friday of two UN relief planes returning from food distribution to Sudanese refugees.

Aid workers at the UN Relief station at Lokichoggio, Kenya.

The planes crashed on the runway of the airstrip, some 650-km
north-west of Nairobi and broke into parts, witnesses said.

Relief crews at the busy airstrip serving UN aid agencies said
the two planes crashed within a space of one and a half hours
after dropping relief food to thousands of starving Southern
Sudanese nationals displaced by the war in their neighbouring
country.

Kenya Civil Aviation Authority Director General Chris Kuto
confirmed the accidents, saying no one was hurt.

“We cannot speculate about the causes of the accident. We can only
speak about the facts we have which is that the first plane crushed
on the runway and the second one crashed as it tried to land.”

“We are trying to find out what happened, we have started diverting
traffic to Sudan, this is a very busy airstrip with about 100
movements per day,” Kuto told PANA on telephone.

Meanwhile, the authorities ordered the airstrip closed Friday to
clear the two planes off the runway, and Kuto said a team of civil
aviation experts was dispatched to accident scene.