Six sky divers among them a Kenyan pilot escaped death narrowly on Friday after a private light aircraft they had boarded falledn down at Malindi Airport after it took off.
The incident that involved a Sesna 206-5y-HV occurred around 11:30 hours according to Malindi Airport Manager Walter Agong.
Addressing journalists few minutes after the accident that badly damaged the air craft, one of the survivors Mr. Mark Sinagra said they had just taken off a minute when they landed back on the ground.
Sinagra who said he is a 20 years old sky diver, joyfully celebrating his narrowly death escape said the engine of the aircraft developed mechanical problems few minutes after taking off.
“We had taken off almost a minute when our aircraft landed back after its engine switched off but we are lucky nobody was injured or even affected by landing back of the aircraft,” posed Sinagra.
He said it was his first incident for the last 20 years sky diving across the world and 15 years specifically in Kenya.
“I have flied about 3500 time and such incident has not occurred. We were going to dive using parachutes before our journey was cut short by the accident,” added Sinagra.
Rick Bate another survivor whose first attempt of flying for sky diving aborted due to the accident said they luckily got out of the aircraft which was damaged.
“It is my first time where I was going to try sky diving but the accident occurred otherwise we are fine no injuries,” asserted Sinagra.
Malindi Airport manager Walter Agong confirmed the incident and said the aircraft had developed mechanical problems which professionals were going to establish.
He said a team of accident investigators from transport department were expected to visit the scene of incident to establish the cause of the accident.
“I don’t want to speculate on what cause d the accident because there are experts from Nairobi who are coming to investigate,” posed Agong.
He said among those who were involved in the accident is one Kenyan who was the pilot and six sky divers from different countries.
Agong noted that the five sky divers have been in the area for the last two weeks using the same aircraft that was involved in the accident.
“This people were here and they have been using the same aircraft sky diving for the last two weeks,” he asserted.
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