Reported Nairobi plane crash was practise drill

Kenyan officials today said a passenger plane had crashed near a Nairobi Airport with 80 people on board, but when reporters arrived, they found it had only been a practise drill.

When reached by telephone, Mathew Kabetu a safety and security officer at the airport, said a plane with 80 people on board crashed while attempting to land after a flight from Kisangani, Congo.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua could not immediately explain why emergency services officials had told journalists there was an actual plane crash.

The report came during a heavy rainstorm and a day after a small plane had skidded off the runway at another Nairobi airfield.