Silverstone airlines has been experiencing technical hitches causing a crash while taking off at Wilson Airport to Malindi via Mombasa early in the month. Before the dust would settle on the crash, the airline was forced to have an emergency landing on monday, raising eyebrows if it is safe to fly the airline.
There were no causalities in both incidents but some passengers sustained injuries in the Wilson accident. The second incident which involved a plane from Lodwar to Nairobi had its wheels fell off, forcing an emergency landing at the Eldoret Airport.
The airline now claims that the root cause of the wheel falling of was due to a bearing failure. According to Silverstone, their plane Dash 8-300 registration 5Y-BWG lost its number three main wheel assembly on take off from Lodwar and was then diverted to Eldoret as a safety measure.
The airline also claims that in the Wilson accident on october 11th that involved Fokker 50 registration 5Y-SMT was not a take off crash as widely reported but the aircraft clipped a beech-craft King Air 200 registration as 5Y-SSB registered to East African Safari Air Express Limited.
Silverstone says that their aircraft was taxing for engine runs, it was not taking off for a flight as widely reported but was going for a routine engine ground runs for purposes of maintenance. They added that they have reported the incident to relevant authorities and are in contact with their insurers.
The state is probing the airline after the two incidents in one month raised concerns about the safety of its planes.
Their management was summoned in parliament on Tuesday following the incidents involving their passenger planes.
