Jambojet hitch forces passengers to disembark

A Jambojet aircraft to Ukunda suffered a technical hitch at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) delaying passengers who had been scheduled to travel to the Coast.

Flight JM 8690 scheduled to depart at 10:20am Monday to Ukunda failed to take off after the pilots noticed that it had developed a mechanical problem.

This was shortly after passengers had boarded the aircraft.

The airline’s chief executive officer Allan Kilavuka confirmed the incident to the Business Daily pointing out that passengers had to disembark because of the fault.

“Earlier today, our flight to Ukunda, JM 8690 scheduled to depart at 10:20am boarded passengers as scheduled.

“However, during a routine check by our engineers, a technical issue was identified, and a decision was made to disembark passengers,” said Mr Kilavuka.

The CEO says that they prioritise the comfort of passengers, and passengers had to disembark to allow the technical team time to fix the aircraft.

“As part of our commitment to maintain the highest levels of safety standards in all our operations, our engineers have a series of checks that they execute before an aircraft takes off,” said the CEO.

The stranded passengers were rescheduled to travel at 3:00pm Monday or earlier depending on the time the fault would have been fixed.

“The passengers are scheduled to travel this afternoon at 3:00pm, however could take off earlier,” said the airline.