14 killed as tourist plane crashes into Kenyan peak

TWO South African crew members and 12 US tourists were killed in a plane crash on Mount Kenya on Saturday evening.

The two crew members were South Africans and the remaining 12 people on board the plane were American tourists,” said a source at Kenya Civil Aviation.

“The tourists on board the plane were members of three American families,” said the source.

Earlier, a senior police official, David Kimaiyo, confirmed that all 14 people aboard the light aircraft had died when it crashed on the Lenana Peak on Mount Kenya.

Kenya Wildlife Service operations chief, Thomas Gesongori, said earlier that the plane had been bound for Samburu national park, north of Mount Kenya.

Kimaiyo said human body parts were scattered across the 4,985m (16,450ft) Lenana Peak when rescue workers arrived at the scene.

“It was a terrible accident. Rescuers from the civil aviation and Kenyan police found human flesh scattered all over the scene of the accident,” Kimaiyo said.

Gesongori said the tourists had originated in South Africa and were bound for Samburu when the plane crashed at around 6.00pm (1500 GMT) Saturday, and that travel documents recovered from eight of the bodies indicated that they were from the United States.

Kimaiyo said the light chartered plane, Metrolink, left Wilson Airport, a small airport in Nairobi’s southwest suburb on Saturday evening and crashed sometime later.

The plane arrived at Wilson Airport for a two-hour stopover before leaving at 4.05pm (1305 GMT).

Eyewitnesses told police that the plane had deviated from the normal air route to Samburu and appeared to be flying close to the rocky Lenana peak, probably for a close observation, but instead hit it.

Aviation investigators have gone to the scene of the accident.