Kenya Airways flight heading to Dubai from Nairobi was forced to make a turnback after staff at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) detected its tyre debris on the runway shortly after take off.
The Flight KQ310, a Boeing 737-8HX had successfully lifted off the JKIA at 9.20pm but the crew was instructed to turn back to the same airport as a precautionary measure.
Airspace data indicates the plane was overflying Garissa are in North Eastern Kenya when it turned back.
In a statement, KQ management said the airliner was instructed to fly back after Air Traffic Control spotted debris during regular runway inspection
“Upon further inspection it was established by the KQ operations team that the tyre debris was from KQ310 which had departed on a scheduled operation from Nairobi to Dubai,” the statement read. “The KQ operation team contacted the crew and agreed on a precautionary air turnback to Nairobi for further technical attention”.
The airliner landed back safely at the JKIA at 23.46hr and the passengers were provided with accommodation as KQ made arrangements to rebook them on other flights.
The management explained that air turnbacks are standard safety procedures in aviation adding that the safety of passengersand crew was their first priority.
It was not clear if the debris were as a result of a problem with the tyres or the runway itself. A few days ago KQ announced it was having problems sourcing spare parts for its aircrafts expressing fear that some of the aeroplanes would be grounded.
