Silverstone issues redundancy notice, cancels scheduled flight operations

Silverstone Air has cancelled its scheduled flight operations a week after Kenya Civil Aviation Authority [KCAA] grounded the airline’s Dash 8 fleet. All other operations are still ongoing.

The airline has also issued a one-month redundancy notice to staff on grounds that it was incurring huge losses following the KCAA directive.

“They cannot operate until we come up with a report on what happened that led to the fall off of the wheel,” said KCAA Director General Gilbert Kibe when issuing the order to have the Silverstone Dash 8 fleet grounded.

Silverstone Air has been in the limelight following recent mishaps involving their planes.

On October 28, there was panic after one of the rear wheels of an aircraft belonging to Silverstone Air detached broke loose as the plane took off from Lodwar Airstrip in Turkana County.

The plane which was carrying four passengers and five crew members en route Nairobi was forced to land at Eldoret International Airport.

On October 11, a Silverstone Air plane crashed on the runway at Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The Lamu-bound airplane - flight 5Y-IZO – crashed shortly after take-off.

It had 5 crew members and 50 passengers on board, two of who were injured during the crash.  The other passengers were safely evacuated from the aeroplane and there were no fatalities reported.