Why 300 Passengers Were Stranded At JKIA For 5 Hours
The flight operating under number KQ 606, a Boeing 737-800, was scheduled to depart JKIA at 1.00 pm and land at Mombasa's Moi International Airport (MIA) an hour later, but it didn't.
admin
At least 300 passengers were on Tuesday, August 22 left stranded at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) following the delay of a Kenya Airways (KQ) flight bound for Mombasa.
The flight operating under number KQ 606, a Boeing 737-800, was scheduled to depart JKIA at 1.00 pm and land at Mombasa's Moi International Airport (MIA) an hour later, but it didn't.
One of the passengers, according to sources at JKIA who told Viral Tea, revealed that as soon as they boarded the plane, the pilot had announced that it developed a mechanical malfunction.
The passenger further noted that the pilot had assured them that they would be airborne in 20 minutes, which would later turn to a five-hour delay before the eventual takeoff at 6.03 pm.
Passengers boarding a Kenya Airways plane. /FILE
According to the passenger's account, a tanker came and fuelled the plane but after the pilot started the engine, it was shut down after a few minutes and the flight was delayed to allow the glitch to be fixed.
"The plane was on time to depart but just like in any machine it developed a glitch, which our team has fixed," KQ Director of Operations Paul Njoroge told The Star.
Spot checks by Viral Tea on the tracking website Flight Aware revealed that the flight departed JKIA at 6.03 pm and arrived in Mombasa at 7.03 pm.
What Else Causes Flight Delays?
Mechanical problems are just one of the issues that trigger delays in flight departure times, others include treacherous weather, aviation traffic, labour disputes, crew scheduling or interloping animals on the runway, among other issues.
An airline’s operations control centre, which acts like a nerve centre for passenger aircraft, weighs a multitude of factors before declaring a new departure time. Airlines strive to make this figure as precise as possible to avoid upending the entire day’s schedule and upsetting passengers.
Airlines may shorten or lengthen the amount of time if the problem improves or worsens, owing to the unpredictability of flight delays. Depending on the reason for the delay, flights can on occasion depart earlier than the original delay estimate.
According to the US Transportation Department, as soon as an airline becomes aware of a flight change, it has 30 minutes to share the updated information with its passengers. At the very least, the carrier must provide the new details on its website and customer service phone line, if it still has one.
In addition, for delays of at least a half-hour, the airline has 30 minutes to amend its flight status sources and displays.
Flight delays affecting passengers at JKIA are nothing new. 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.
