EMERGENCY DRILL BY KENYA CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY PROMPTS ENDLESS RUMOURS ON MISSING PLANE
(Posted 03rd December 2019)
An emergency drill held without prior notice by KCAA, using an allegedly missing aircraft enroute from Rusinga Island to Nairobi’s Wilson Airport, has immediately prompted wide speculation on social and other media – one of which made further unsubstantiated allegations in regard to aviation safety in Kenya – as to what happened to the aircraft ‘due to land‘ earlier today.
A statement by KCAA Director General Capt. Gilbert Kibe shed light on the exercise when he said: ‘The exercise will help us gauge the preparedness of the agencies that are part of the search and rescue system in responding to an aviation incident. The planning process involved communication and desktop exercises culminating in the full scale drill with independent evaluators on board‘.
KCAA through social media statements further said: ‘Today we successfully conducted a Multi-Government Agency Search & Rescue drill dubbed OKOA MAISHA ASAREX 2019 aimed at assessing the State’s level of preparedness in coordination, communication, command, and control of the National Aeronautical Search and Rescue system.‘
Irregular sources from Nairobi tried to lure ATCNews into rushing out a report about a missing plane but additional information sought by ATCNews then came to light through a more regular source close to KCAA and an impeccable source from Wilson Airport that this was indeed a disaster preparedness evaluation exercise.
Wrote KCAA in a formal statement:
Congratulations to KCAA and other Kenyan government agencies to keep this drill under wraps to test real responses and for conducting this exercise successfully!
