الثلاثاء 26-05-2009 الموافق 02-06-1430
المكان: سواحل كينيا
نوع الطائرة: مروحية هيلوكبتر
تابعة: للجيش الكيني
تحطمت طائرة مروحية ذات رقم تسجيل KAY 515 ، ت في الساعة 2.30 بالتوقيت المحلي لكينيا يوم الثلاثاء بينما كانت تحمل ثلاثة من كبار ضباط الجيش بينهم عقيد في الجيش واثنين من الطيارين من رتبة رائد. وقال المتحدث بأأسم الجيش الكيني أنه من السابق لاوانه تحديد سبب الحادث وقد أستبعد أن يكون سبب سقوط الطائرة بسبب هجوم ولكنه أقر بأنه من المحتمل أن تكون الطائرة أحترقت عند أصدامها بالسطح.
يذكر أن المنطقة القريبة من الحدود بين كينيا والصومال لا تزال تحت المراقبة المكثفة بسبب الصراع الدائر بين المليشيات الصومالية التي يغيب عنها القانون منذ عقد من الزمن. وقد صدرت تهديدات من المليشيات الصومالية بأنها سوف ترد وتضرب المصالح الكينية التي تقع إلى الشمال الشري في حال تدخل كينا مرة أخرى في الصومال.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Police and intelligence officers in Ijara district have ruled out the possibility of an enemy attack on the Kenya Army helicopter that crash landed Tuesday at Hulugho.
Ijara OCPD Rems Warui said the site of the crash was 17km away from the border and the area was uninhabited and under intense surveillance by security personnel making it difficult for an enemy to launch a successful attack on the plane.
Warui further said that the Somalia side of the border was also a vast stretch of uninhabited territory.
The OCPD said that the plane was flying within Kenyan airspace from Kyuna in Lamu to Hulugho and was therefore out of possible enemy territory.
Intelligence sources confirmed that no explosion was heard when the plane crashed. They said that the plane first hit a tree then rammed into a fence within the compound of the military camp.
The sources, however, said that Hulugho was notorious for very strong winds and hinted that the aircraft might have been overpowered by the winds.
The plane, registration number KAY 515, went down at 2.30 pm local time Tuesday while carrying three senior military officers including an army colonel and two pilots of the rank of major. The officers who sustained injuries were said to be on normal patrol.
The army Tuesday night declined to make any conclusion as to what might have brought the chopper down saying it was too early to establish the cause of the crash.
It however ruled out an attack saying it could have caught fire had it been hit from the ground.
The area near the Kenya-Somali border has been under intensive surveillance to keep off the Al-Shabab militia who are involved in fighting with the government in the lawless country.
The militias have threatened to invade Kenya and annex the North eastern province.
The accident came two weeks after another chopper carrying an assistant minister, police commissioner and journalist crashed in Kapsabet.
Source: KBC, May 27, 2009