Pilot's Quick Action That Prevented Plane Collision At JKIA

A Kenya Airways pilot on Friday morning, September 8 took decisive action to avoid what could have been a major tragedy at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi involving two aircraft.

This was narrated by Moina Spooner, a journalist with The Conversation, who revealed that both the Kenya Airways plane and an aircraft headed for Rwanda were about 1,000 metres from each other, with the former landing and the other taking off.

Spooner, who documented her frightening experience as she was onboard the plane that was returning from London, United Kingdom (UK), recounted that the plane was approaching landing distance when it suddenly took off at a sharp angle, leaving the passengers scared and bewildered.

"Been debating whether to post this, but thought it was important to because something went very wrong at JKIA this morning.

"Our plane was landing and close to touchdown (we could see the runway and buildings alongside it) it took off at a very sharp angle," she shared on X (formerly Twitter).

The pilot thereafter explained that the landing was aborted as the other plane was on the runway, in the process of a take-off just as the KQ plane was landing.

She blamed the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) over the incident which could have had devastating results, but appreciated the KQ pilot for his reactionary instincts in keeping the passengers safe in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft with a capacity of 234.

Spooner further called for investigations to be carried out on the issue with a view to preventing such incidences from occurring in the future.

"After the plane was high enough and levelled out, the pilot informed us that he had to because there was another plane on the runway. Kenya Airports this could have ended really badly - and clearly something went wrong.

"Kenya Airways I am so grateful to your pilot for his quick thinking, for keeping us safe and calm. I hope this situation gets fully investigated and addressed. We can't wait for a tragedy to happen before there's action," she called.

The incident sparked outrage from Kenyans who demanded an explanation from the management of the international airport, considered the largest and busiest airport in East Africa that handles hundreds of local and international flights daily.

Questions were asked regarding how two planes could be on the runway at once, with Flight Control pressed to explain its role in the confusion and the actions it took to rectify the situation.

"As per data from FlightRadar24, at 05:15 this morning, Kenya Airways flight KQ101 from London initiated a go-around at 5,375 feet at about 3800 feet before the runway threshold. This is at the start of the parallel cargo apron. The airport's altitude is 5,330 feet," tweeted Ian Cox, an aviation expert.

A go-around occurs when an aircrew makes the decision not to continue an approach, or not to continue a landing, and follows procedures to conduct another approach or to divert to another airport. Go-arounds can happen at any point from the final approach fix to wheels on the runway (but prior to any deceleration device being activated - e.g. brakes, spoilers, thrust reversers). 

The flight bound for Rwanda was also revealed to have taken off 20 minutes ahead of schedule, raising further questions on how it was authorized to take off when there was another aircraft on the way to land.

Neither JKIA nor the KAA had issued a statement on the matter by the time of publishing, a matter which once again raised the aspect of JKIA having only one runway yet it was handling several aircraft coming in and going every day.

On Monday, April 17, the airport's only runway was shut down after a cargo plane, a Boeing 747-400 belonging to Singapore Airlines, could not take off due to tyre damage, a matter that led to the diversion of several flights and adverse flight delays.