SILVERSTONE FLEET GROUNDED ON AIRWORTHINESS CONCERNS
(Posted 12th November 2019)
The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has with immediate effect grounded the Dash 8 fleet of Silverstone Air to allow for added investigations to be carried out following two serious incidents the airline suffered over the past weeks.
First did a Fokker 50 fail to take off from Wilson Airport and overran the runway, ending across the perimeter fence only metres from a busy highway.
https://atcnews.org/2019/10/11/silverstone-aircraft-bound-for-mombasa-and-lamu-crashes-on-take-off/
The second incident then saw a Dash 8 lose a wheel soon after taking off, prompting a close up inspection of the airline’s records and now leading to the grounding of their Dash 8 fleet.
https://atcnews.org/2019/10/28/silverstone-air-under-investigation-after-second-incident-in-october/
The airline has subsequently cancelled routes operated with Dash 8 aircraft but a source close to them suggested they might try to lease aircraft to continue operations.
It could not be established by the time of uploading this article if any of the airline’s other aircraft was affected by the KCAA directive too.
Only yesterday afternoon did this correspondent witness a Silverstone turboprop aircraft take off from Mombasa, so the grounding is indeed a development which took place earlier today.
Passengers booked with Silverstone are urgently advised to contact the airline and establish if their booked flights will operate or else what other arrangements are being made to uplift them to their chosen destinations or else to refund them.
