As Kenya Airways (KQ), continues to raise eyebrows over its recent problems, Prof Kwesi Yankah- a former Ghanaian Minister has come out to recount an experience he described as traumatizing.
In a statement shared on December 13, Prof Yankah rode on current flight disruptions reports due to lack of access to spare parts to narrate an ordeal while flying the airline.
The day was November 30 and the ex-Ghanaian minister, and fellow scholars were flying back home from a conference in Cape Town through Nairobi.
Ten minutes after taking off in Cape Town, he explained, passengers and crew aboard the Flight KQ 783 Cape Town-Nairobi were alarmed by a jiggling sound and rattling sound on the aircraft’s body.
Then suddenly, he went on, the aircraft’s speed slowed down, nearly coming to a stop while still airborne.
This turn of events left passengers gripped in fear as they feared for the worst.
What followed was an announcement from the pilot who notified the passengers that the plane had experienced a hitch caused by a faulty landing gear.
Consequently, the plane had to return to Cape Town.
“We shall touch down in about 20 minutes after spilling aviation fuel in the ocean. Please stay calm, and sorry for the inconvenience,” Prof Yankah recalled the pilot’s words.
The plane, he says, then discharged its aviation fuel in the ocean in readiness for an emergency landing.
Near-death experience with Kenya Airways
At that point, Prof Yankah and his fellow passengers got nervous, gripped by fears of what was lying before them.
“I looked around me and was not comforted. Nervous passengers looked over shoulders, preparing to brace for the worst,” he said.
Within minutes, the Boeing 737-800 plane turbulently landed at Cape Town further plunging the passengers into fear.
At the time, the aircraft’s body was rattled, and part of the luggage compartments blast open.
Eventually, the plane came to a stop much to the relief of the passengers.
As he put it in his statement, the passengers disembarked from the plane while shocked to the core and taxied their way back to the terminal.
Unknown to him however, there was still more to come in the horrific episode.
After a three-hours wait, Kenya Airways made an announcement about the next course of action.
To their surprise, he explained, the announcement was not about a change of planes.
Instead, KQ stated that the mechanical fault had been repaired by engineers, and that they were to re-board the same plane for Nairobi.
Left with limited options in their situation, the Professor and his compatriots then boarded a plane and took off from the Cape Town airport for the second time.
KQ flight makes U-turn to Cape Town again
But then the same hitches experienced in the first attempt happened again and the plane experienced difficulties while trying to rise higher into the air.
Also Read: Kenya Airways Announces Possible Festive Season Disruptions
As was expected, the pilot resorted to making a u-turn and flew back to the airport.
At that point, the former Minister of State in Ghana made up their mind to immediately abandon the KQ flight and look for alternatives.
“Disembarking at Cape Town yet again, we thanked our stars, and three of us swore to put Kenya Airways perpetually behind us and immediately switch to another airline,’ he recounted.
Also Read: KQ CEO Reveals New Strategy to Get Kenya Airways from the Hole
“The rest decided to accept a simple change of the aircraft. That of course meant spending an extra night in Cape Town and negotiating alternative flights to Accra.”
KQ latest problems
The revelation came days after the national flag carrier announced possible flight disruptions in the festive season.
In its explanation, KQ cited shortage of spare parts as the reason for the disruptions, stating that lack of access to spare parts had left planes grounded for longer periods.
The disruptions add to the myriad of challenges facing the airline against a backdrop of a loss-making spree.
