Skyward Express issues statement after aircraft crash landed with 37 passengers onboard

Skyward Express, a chartered planes service provider, has issued a statement following an incident which occurred on Wednesday.

The company acknowledged that an aircraft registered to their airline crashed on landing with 37 passengers and 4 crew members onboard.

The aircraft, registration 5Y-GRS, is said to have experienced what was termed as a “runway excursion” upon landing at Elwak, in Mandera South Sub-county.

Confirming that both the passengers and crew were unharmed in the incident, Skyward Express assured its customers that all other flights would continue as planned.

"Preliminary reports indicate that the aircraft suffered a runway excursion upon landing due to highly contaminated runway. The crew successfully put the aircraft to a halt and all passengers were safely evacuated.

"We confirm that all the people on board the aircraft are safe," the statement read in part.

Skyward Express aircraft which crashed at Elwak Airstrip Pulse Live Kenya

KDF Crash

The close-shave comes just a month after a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) chopper crashed in Ol Tepesi in Kajiado West sub-county and burst into flames.

In an official dispatch from Colonel Zipporah Kioko, the force confirmed that some of the passengers aboard the chopper which crashed on Thursday June 24, 2021 had passed away.

Col Kioko also added that all the passengers who had survived were undergoing treatment at the Defence Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi.

The KDF spokesperson, however, did not reveal the identities of those who survived or perished from the crash stating that their families had not been contacted.

KDF further conveyed that an investigation into the cause of the crash had been launched.