FATAL PLANE CRASH KILLS PILOT AND PASSENGER
(Posted 14th March 2016)
(Picture courtesy of ‘Pilots Kenya’ via their Facebook page)
A private aircraft registered in France as F-JSCZ crashed earlier today, almost immediately after attempting to take off from the Sera Conservancy in Northern Kenya, killing the pilot and passenger, both reportedly French nationals.
Among them was pilot Thierry Barbier who had flown the Nynja 912 Microlight to Kenya last year in an attempt to criss cross Africa when he suffered an engine failure in December. The emergency landing at the time seriously damaged the aircraft but Thierry had escaped unharmed. Thierry had flown the aircraft to nearly 90 countries in the past and was an avid aviator.
He reportedly returned to Kenya in mid February this year with a team of technicians to restore the plane to airworthiness at the Orly airfield on the Kitengela plains outside Nairobi, before embarking on this fateful journey to Kenya’s north.
No information is presently available about the causes of the crash with the weather in the morning described as very good for flying, perhaps indicating another technical failure, similar to the one which caused the emergency landing last year, but this time with sadly fatal consequences. The Kenyan authorities have launched an air accident investigation and officials from France are expected to join them over the coming days.
Condolences are expressed to the families and friends of the two crash victims.
