Kenyan investigators are probing the fatal loss of a medical Cessna Citation XLS which came down just after take-off from Nairobi’s Wilson airport.
Contact with the air ambulance jet – operated by the AMREF Flying Doctors service – was lost about 3min after departure.
It had taken off for Hargeisa in Somaliland at around 14:17 on 7 August, in order to pick up a patient for medical evacuation, says the operator.
“The tower immediately alerted AMREF Flying Doctors,” it adds. “Efforts to reach the crew via VHF and satellite phone were unsuccessful.”
The jet came down near a secondary school in the Utawala district about 12nm northeast of the airport.
None of the four occupants, comprising two pilots and two medical personnel, survived. The accident also resulted in two fatalities on the ground.
The operator has identified the airframe involved as the Kenyan-registered 5Y-FDM.
AMREF Flying Doctors says it is “working closely with the relevant aviation authorities”, as well as other security and emergency response teams, to investigate the cause of the accident.
