Crash of a De Havilland DHC-8-102 in Nairobi
Date & Time:
Mar 20, 2026 at 2054 LT
Operator:
Registration:
5Y-BXI
Survivors:
Yes
Schedule:
Kisumu – Nairobi
MSN:
376
YOM:
1994
Crew on board:
5
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
32
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
0
Captain / Total hours on type:
5703.00
Copilot / Total hours on type:
760
Aircraft flight hours:
49438
Circumstances:
The airplane departed Kisumu International Airport at 1958LT on an hour’s Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) commercial scheduled passenger flight to HKNW in Nairobi County. For this segment of flight, the Pilot-In-Command (PIC) was the pilot flying and the First Officer (FO) was the pilot monitoring. According to the flight crew, a prior ground briefing was carried out at HKKI before takeoff for the approach runway 06 (RWY 06) Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (HKJK) in Nairobi. It was discussed that the flight crew would maintain Instrument Landing System (ILS) HKJK RWY 06, and if the flight crew got a visual of HKNW RWY 32, it would then break off and position for right base HKNW RWY 32. According to the flight plan, the alternate aerodrome of landing was HKJK or Kilimanjaro International Airport (HTKJ) After being visual with HKNW RWY 32, the flight crew broke off the ILS and began a visual approach for landing. The flight noticed the aircraft was too high when it crossed the threshold of RWY 32. The flight crew increased the descent rate to 700 ft per minute. An Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) “sink rate” warning sounded in the cockpit, followed by a hard landing. The aircraft lost control and veered off to the right of the runway into the grass area and stopped at about 30 metres. The nose landing gear collapsed while the left main landing gear detached, and the right main landing gear sustained damage. All 37 occupants evacuated safely.
