Kenya Airways (KQ) has blamed aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Embraer after the national carrier made three emergency landings in a month.
According to Flightradar24 – a site that tracks aircraft in real-time, three KQ flights were forced to make unscheduled landings at London’s Heathrow Airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), and Livingston, Zambia in the month of February.
According to Simple Flying, on February 15, a Kenya Airways Boeing 787-8 flight scheduled to fly from London Heathrow to Jomo Kenyatta Airport at 10:15 GMT was forced to turn back ten minutes after takeoff. It was suspected that aircraft faults caused the return to Heathrow. It seemed to be a regular flight on this route. Still, according to eyewitnesses, the aircraft appeared to circle over South East London for about half an hour, flew towards the Channel, and continued to circle the air for another 20 minutes. The flight eventually headed towards Heathrow and made an emergency landing at 11:48 GMT.
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The technical issues experienced by the airline affected other airlines with the same aircraft models. Kenya Airways stated in response to Business Daily; “The technical issues affecting some of our fleets also affect similar fleet types and ages worldwide. The above issues have no relationship with the current industry shortage of parts, as all maintenance schedules are being adhered to.”
Less than a week before the Heathrow return, the same B787-8 aircraft on a scheduled flight from Nairobi to Dubai diverted back to Jomo Kenyatta Airport a few minutes after takeoff. The flight took off 43 minutes behind schedule but was forced to dump fuel before returning to the airport. The turnaround was due to a slat skew fault, which does not create a safety risk, but the airline had to take a precautionary measure and head back to Nairobi. Kenya Airways said in a statement;
“The air turn back was precautionary due to a slat skew fault. The root cause is corrosion in a rotary gear actuator in the slat system, which affects all 787 of a similar age to the KQ fleet, caused by a design flaw by Boeing that allows moisture to enter the system and cause the said corrosion.”
On February 8, a Kenya Airways Embraer 190 flying to Cape Town International Airport (CPT) experienced a technical fault and was forced to divert to Livingstone, Zambia. KQ’s management stated that the Embraer aircraft en route to South Africa suffered an inflight fault that caused the disruptions. Kenya Airways said in an email response to Business Daily; “An E190 operated the Cape Town flight. Unfortunately, it experienced an inflight fault caused by a failure of a part known as P-ACE that affects the Embraer fleet worldwide. The part has been replaced.”
