Busiest airport in region has recorded minimal fatal accidents

By Rawlings Otieno

Nairobi, Kenya: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) has had a number of accidents, with the first fatal incident happening in 1974.

A Lufthansa Boeing 747-130 crashed on take-off from runway 24, killing 59 of the 157 passengers on board. The aircraft was from Frankfurt and was transiting to Johannesburg.

In May 1989, a Boeing 707-330B plane operated by Somali Airlines over-ran the runway and crashed into a field near the airport. The plane had 70 people on board, but no fatalities occurred. Another accident occurred in 1990, when a Boeing 707-321C operated by Sudanic Air Cargo crashed near the airport while landing. All 10 persons on board died.

On Monday this week, an airlock in the main pipeline that delivers jet fuel to the airport caused all inbound flights to JKIA to be diverted to other airfields. Over 1,000 passengers were placed in overnight accommodation, and the fault was fixed by the next morning.

An expansion project was prompted after the airport’s annual passenger flow doubled, yet the airport was originally constructed to handle 2.5 million passengers. The expansion of the airport will more than double its size, from 25,662 to 55,222 square metres. JKIA, formerly Embakasi Airport and Nairobi International Airport, is the largest aviation facility and the busiest airport in East and Central Africa. The airport, located 18km to the east of Nairobi, is served by 49 scheduled airlines and has direct flight connections to Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and Africa.

It is served by one terminal building constructed in the 1970s and a single runway used for take-offs and landings.

Embakasi terminal, now used for cargo and for a Kenya Air Force training facility, was constructed in the mid-1950s.

The terminal building consists of three areas. Units I and II are for international departures while Unit III serves domestic departures and arrivals.  JKIA is dubbed the focal point for major aviation activity in the region. Its importance as an aviation centre makes it the pacesetter for other airports in the region. The Nairobi-Mombasa Highway runs adjacent to the airport and is the main route of access between Nairobi and the facility.

The airport is the key hub of national carrier Kenya Airways and Fly540 and in 2001, it was rated the eighth-busiest airport in Africa.